Duane, et al this conversation is interesting, but probably not going to go anywhere, other than that Ed probably took stuff he already had and modified what was easy, and built new what he needed. More interesting is that in any of the published articles Ed wrote he hardly ever wrote in the first person, it was always 'we'. I have a feeling that much of the development was a group effort, and Les Fruh was probably one of the major partners. It may be productive to research what Les was up to, and ask questions of him if he is still around. As for the 1961 Nats photo, well the English mags did try to follow what was happening, and what was not so interesting to the US publishers was certainly of interest to the rest of the world. We must remind ourselves that Ed started with an Astro Hog, which 'we' modified to become 'Orion' and 'we' then modified that to become Taurus. This constant development resulted in Taurus 2, for propo, then through to Simla, and there is a photo of Les and a similar model to Simla too. It is not surprising that there are so many variations, it is surprising that so much has survived, though obviously not enough to be specific about the genealogy. Still, it is fun and my versions of Orion, Tauri and Taurus provide me with most of my relaxation flying.
Evan.