Here's a process for creating the deleopment pattern for the truncated elliptical cone.
Start we a 3D solid model of the cone and create sections every 15° for one quarter of the shape.

Create 3DFACES (of 4 vertices each) from the sections.

Mirror the 3dfaces to yield the full elliptical cone.
Use align to place the entire "faceted" shape so that one panel (cyan) is flush with a rectangle. Then use align to reposition all but the first (cyan) panel such that the second panel is coplanar with the rectangle. The process is repeated but with one less panel for each alignmnet. Here's the model after 3 panels have been algned.

After 8 panels have been aligned it looks like this.

After all the panel have been "rolled out" it looks like the following.

Fitting a spline through the edge vertices we have the final development.

lee.minardi