View Single Post
  #13  
Old 02-24-2015, 06:38 PM
stefanj stefanj is offline
Master Modeler
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Hillsboro, OR
Posts: 2,847
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Earl
And why they dropped all the nice MiniMax rockets when they officially introduced the Enerjet line has always been a mystery to me. Cost-cutting move by the Damon suits would be my best guess. Got rid of all the heavy walled tubing kits and went 'standard' Centuri tubing for the Enejet stuff (save for the heavy-walled 1340).


Earl


It is surprising that the LIA-100 went away. The smaller tripod was probably better for high power than the plastic units Centuri started selling for use with smaller models in the early 70s, but you'd think that a company (Enerjet) trying to project a more professional image would offer a sturdier pad.

At NARCON last weekend Lee Piester said something to the effect that those tubes were some of the best he'd ever seen. From the limited samples I've seen, I agree. The cone and fins that came with my 1968 vintage Aero Dart were also top-notch.

Yeah, cost-cutting and eliminating speciality products probably did in the "MiniMax" rockets. Seeing those disappear between 1971 (my first Centuri catalog) and 1972 was a real let-down. Being able to have those models was a driving force of my rocketry efforts around ten years ago; I managed to clone nearly all of them before Semroc made it easy!
__________________
NAR #27085 - Oregon Rocketry - SAM
Reply With Quote