Ah Landroger, I was not being contentious. just stating fact. These loading schemes were rolled up into what became Exhibit A. I am not sure if this became contractual document but worked to establish a baseline for trade offs. A stick to beat up Airbus with. One of the concerns was safety during emergency egress and load lozenging into those who may have been sat in the sideways facing seats. Some of VX275s mates from the day were arguing over reduced levels of cargo restraint during military ops. As we know this aircraft is being certified to the more rigorous civilian regulations.
It was nice to hear several years later that the seats and restraint would be more crashworthy than the C130 benchmark.
By the way VX is quite an expert on transport aircraft history going back to the Dakota. He would know about these things for sure.
When ESF was eating up all our cash on the Hercules Project Team my Dad kept giving me an earful of how the Argosy had been equipped with a superior system back in it's day. I do hope the A400M is so equipped.
Al R, Thanks for posting the link to the RAF promo video. I only ever saw the computer mock ups of the Loadmasters workstation etc. I retired before the real thing came into being. I hope I get a chance to see one soon.