What was the AAMSA Quail called before?

The Quail's lineage begins at the Call Aircraft Company (CAC), which had built the CallAir Model A series of light utility and agricultural aircraft. That dual purpose shaped the design's future: it was the agricultural branch that ultimately prevailed. In 1962 the Intermountain Manufacturing Company (IMCO) bought CAC, and that acquisition produced a new agricultural derivative of the Callair, the CallAir A-9. The aircraft changed hands again in 1966, when Rockwell International bought IMCO and began building it under its Aero Commander division. That is where the name that would follow the model for the rest of its commercial life appears: Aero Commander sold the A-9B variant as the "Quail Commander," an improved version with a more powerful engine.

In 1971 Rockwell moved production to Mexico, to a joint venture set up that same year called Aeronáutica Agrícola Mexicana SA (AAMSA), split between Rockwell International, with 30%, and Industrias Unidas SA, with 70%. The purpose of the venture was to build Rockwell's range of agricultural aircraft at a plant located in Pasteje. With that move, the program ceased to be exclusively in American hands and came to depend mainly on Mexican capital.

The result was the AAMSA A9B-M, a development of the CallAir A-9 and the company's most notable product. It was not an unchanged reproduction: it featured an improved design, with a lowered rear fuselage, a redesigned cockpit, and greater wing dihedral. In that configuration the aircraft remained in production until 1984, the final stage of a lineage that had started with the CallAir Model A and passed through IMCO, Rockwell, and Aero Commander before ending up in Pasteje.