Centuri Servo Launcher
 

I saw this interesting little contraption in a 1971 Centuri Catalog.

Centuri Servo Launcher

I've never seen or heard of one before. The ad says that a pulse of air from the hand held plunger closes the contact that is built into the launch pad and fires the rocket. I must say it looks neat and is a novel idea. I was wondering if anyone out the personally used or owned one. How reliable was it? Was it durable?

Thanks,

David

It was a pretty neat little contraption, though I have never actually used one, but have a couple of them in my collection. A small balloon would inflate from the hand held plunger and that would close a contact inside the launcher and ignite the ignitor.

I would suspect that the balloon could probably become a little problematic over time, and I don't know just how dependable it would be to inflate that balloon with just one press of the plunger, or did it on some occasions maybe require two presses, etc.

It was around from the '71 catalog though the '74-75 catalog and then was replaced by the Power Pad, which was another neat little launcher that fit atop a 6v lantern battery. It was my first launcher from back in the 70s and I still use it some.

Earl

I had one but never really got the chance to use it. You displaced air in the plunger to a bladder in the launch pad assembly. I saw it work once or twice but never actually used it. The photo-flash batteries were too expensive for me so I stuck with using my Dad's car to power the pad.

Wow! cool stories. Too bad not many people used them. Here is a color photo of one. It looks cool.

Color Photo of Centuri Servo Launcher

I was raised up in Rocketry on Estes Rockets and supplies. I had never bought anything from anyone else until this time around as a BAR, which got started in me last year.

I have enjoyed discovering Centuri, Semroc, Quest, Dr. Zooch, and others. There's some really neat stuff out there to play with. I'm really glad Semroc stocks many of the Retro Reproduction kits, plus all the stuff you'd ever need to clone something that is not a kit.

David

Here's mine...

Wow! That's cool for days. Have you ever used it? What's your impression of it. Should it have been more popular than it was? Well built? Where is the continuity light on the launcher? Is there a safety key or interlock?

David

I still have mine. There was a hole in the top of the plunger handle that you covered with your thumb when you launched. When you pressed it that forced what air was in the plunger and hose into the balloon that initiated the launch.

There was a safety key [more like a small plastic card] that fit into a slot on top of the launch stand. If I remember right, there was a small light bulb that fit into the card that lit up to show continuity.

I remember the whole setup being pretty reliable. I used it until I could no longer find photo-flash batteries.

I'm pretty sure that today's alkaline D cells would work just fine in the Servo Launcher......

Photo-flash batteries dissappeared in the 70's in my area. This launch pad wasn't igniting Estes Solar ignitors (like Estes has today) made for 6v. It was igniting sure-shots, which used regular old nichrome (like Astron igniters) wrapped around a bit of thermalite.

Ah - I wondered what igniter worked on 3V in that time frame.

That said, I wouldn't be too surprised if one could fire at least Q2G2s. That would make an interesting experiment anyway.