Read Ralph Baumheckel's book "IH Farm Equipment Product History 1831-1985". It is all in the Axial-Flow chapter (page 343). He states that IH started experimenting in the mid 1950s with a 10 foot cut machine. The ideas were developed well before that as they envisaged the 2MX picker rotors in a 141 combine. Full size laboratory models were constructed in 1962 and secure field test in a 403 combine equipped with an axial flow 24 inch rotor in Arizona occurred in 1964. What is not well known is that the NH twin rotor design came out of the same advanced engineering group. At the time IH did not know which was best, single or dual rotor, so they built both machines. There is even a picture of an IH twin rotor machine doing corn. The twin rotor was more costly and if they could get the single rotor to feed correctly, it would be the better choice for cost driven farmers. It took them a couple of seasons to get the single rotor feeding properly, and at that point (1967) the dual rotor program was abandoned. The twin rotor engineer then went to work for NH and NH continued work on the twin rotor. NH introduced the TR70 in 1975 but the combine was ready for production in 1973. IH had sued NH over their former engineer's role in developing the TR70. They received a modest cash settlement from NH and delayed the introduction of the TR70. So you see the IH and NH axial flow combines came out of the brain trust IH had in the Advanced Engineering group back in the 1950's and 1960's. There are pictures of both the 403 and the 815 with the axial flow rotor in this book. It is an excellent book and well worth buying.