To bring others up to speed, (and avoid having to read the whole 31 page Taurus thread), Cees feels strongly that the fuselage on the Taurus on the right in the crate from Ed Kazmirski's estate was the oldest Taurus constructed, and is the same fuselage as the one recently auctioned as the Taurus-2. Later according to Cees, Ed changed the stab and made it much thicker. Ed also designed a very thick wing with a straight trailing edge for this fuselage known as the "carrier wing", (note picture from the aircraft carrier). Even later, Ed went back to a traditional Taurus airfoil...still with a straight trailing edge, and changed the fuselage again to allow proper fit. I have the Taurus II fuselage, (the one Cees feels is from the oldest Taurus). There is evidence the fuselage has been modified for different wing shapes, but to me, it appears the thick wing was the original wing, and the thinner traditional airfoil wing with the straight trailing edge came later. This wing fits the fuselage now, as the pictures show. This wing had a different striped paint scheme. He flew this Taurus II from approximately 1964 on. There are many pictures of it. I'll include a few of the pictures so you can follow the history.

The Wester Taurus has the same look as the Taurus II fuselage, (which is slimmer, trimmer, and 1/2" narrower), but with the original stab the fuse in the crate had. If you look closely, the vertical fin shape and rake of the Taurus II is different from the fin on the Taurus kit. I don't know which of the fins Cees uses on his Wester Taurus. A traditional wing goes with this fuselage rather than the taper wing with straight trailing edge.

So the Wester Taurus is a slimmer, trimmer, Taurus with a traditional wing that as closely as possible approximates the Taurus on the right side of the crate.

I hope I have accurately reflected the gist of Cees's arguement. According to Cee's theory, this is the very first Taurus designed and flown, but it is his theory...it was not proven conclusively to all of us. Some still feel a version of the Taurus on the cover of the January 1963 MAN, and the Taurus of the kit was the first Taurus design.

Cees may be right, but people need to know that not everybody agrees with all his conclusions from the other thread. It is not my intent to say he is not correct, just to inform others that there are other ideas out there.

The Wester Taurus is a handsome aircraft, with a slimmer, trimmer body that will likely be lighter than a standard commonly known Taurus from a kit. I believe Cees referred to it sometimes as Ed's "contest Taurus". It is certainly worth building and flying, but is it "the oldest Taurus on Earth"....I think "the jury is still out".

Duane