Originally Posted by
Savoia
Is anyone aware of the history behind the development of the Category A Takeoff. Where it was first developed, who were the development pilots or any information about its origins?
I was under the impression that this was about Cat A T/O, not CAA acceptance of the same? (Disregarding the change to PC1/2 etc that has superseded Cat A)
The FAA had approved Cat A for the Bell 212 in 1972, so any development would have been well in place before that. The attached scans indicate both the approval date of the Cat A Supplement (18th August 1972) and the profile:
I think it somewhat cheeky for the Flight article to infer that McAlpine had developed this technique some 13 years after this Bell 212 example, even allowing for journalistic license. I'm sure that there would be other examples prior to the 212, certainly the S61.