That is pretty much what I hear, particularly the "looks like a Taurus" comment. That is an opening and I tell them a "refined Taurus", and really a "research plane" with adjustable wing position, (high, mid, and low wing position), adjustable dihedral, and stab. Then I'll tell them that Ed would fly the Taurus II, then the Simla...then turn to the crowd and say "they fly Sim-la". There are a lot of comments about it being a "pretty plane". I knew the interest was there back in 2007 when I included a small version of this picture as part of an article that discussed "researching your plane...finding out about its history". I received more comments about that small picture of the Simla than the rest of the article combined. Late 2007 was when I first wanted to re-create the Simla. After giving up a few months later due to lack of evidence and expertise, the idea faded some until after Ed's passing when those small 3X3" black & white photos arrived from Chuck Noble, the person who handled the auction of Ed's estate. What a great day that was..this large envelope with 7 little unassuming pictures at the bottom. The number of known photos of Simla about doubled that day.

The day of the first flights Kevin was the "test pilot". He basically said, "...it flies like a large Taurus, only better...". Looks like an airliner when coming in for a slow landing, doesn't it?

Duane