  The CTA (Cherenkov Telescope Array) is the next generation ground-based
experiment for very high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray observations. It will integrate
several tens of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs) with different
apertures into a single astronomical instrument. The US part of the CTA
collaboration has proposed and is developing a novel IACT design with a
Schwarzschild-Couder (SC) aplanatic two mirror optical system. In comparison
with the traditional single mirror Davies-Cotton IACT the SC telescope, by
design, can accommodate a wide field-of-view, with significantly improved
imaging resolution. In addition, the reduced plate scale of an SC telescope
makes it compatible with highly integrated cameras assembled from silicon photo
multipliers. In this submission we report on the status of the development of
the SC optical system, which is part of the effort to construct a full-scale
prototype telescope of this type at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in
southern Arizona.

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics