06/23/2025. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "During 1937, the USAAC organized a contest for a 'basic combat' aircraft, a new category of trainer intended to have the same armament, equipment and characteristics as operational aircraft. To meet the requirements set out in Army Circular Proposal 37-220, North American built a variant of the NA-16 with a 600 hp Pratt & Whitney R-1340 engine, a retractable landing gear, provision for forward and rear armament and navigation and engine instruments representative of a combat type, This prototype was known as the NA-26 and was the immediate progenitor of the Texan and Harvard types and others.

One of these types was the NA-36 BC-1 basic combat trainer for the USAAC, similar to NA-26, but with a stronger 450 hp Pratt & Whitney R-1340-7 Wasp nine-cylinder air-cooled radial engine. Of the NA-36 BC-1 version, three similar NA-45 NA-16-1GVs were supplied to the Venezuelan AF."