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  #1  
Old 12-03-2012, 10:41 PM
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Earl Earl is offline
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Default Who's issued First: Centuri or Estes Saturn V?

Over the years, I have made the assumption that the Centuri Saturn V was issued to the model rocket public slightly ahead of the Estes offering, maybe by a matter of mere months, both occurring by spring of '69.

Was reading a copy of the February, 1969 Estes Model Rocket News recently where Vern mentions in his column that the new 1969 catalog, featuring their Saturn V, would be out by that March.

That would be about the time that I had thought the Centuri Saturn V was out too, so it got me to wondering just who's Saturn V was actually out AND available for purchase first (not just 'announced and coming soon').

Anybody have a reliable memory on the respective availability dates?


Thanks,

Earl
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Old 12-04-2012, 07:21 AM
Rocketcrab Rocketcrab is offline
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If my feeble memory serves me, I think the Centuri 1/100 scale Saturn V was available before the Estes offering.
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Old 12-04-2012, 08:37 AM
jetlag jetlag is offline
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I think the Estes was listed first. It had the paper wraps, not the vacuum-formed ones.
Hard for me to say for sure; all we were able to buy around here was Estes, not Centuri.
I have 2 of those Estes SV's still in their boxes...

Allen
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Old 12-04-2012, 07:21 PM
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Royatl Royatl is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Earl
Over the years, I have made the assumption that the Centuri Saturn V was issued to the model rocket public slightly ahead of the Estes offering, maybe by a matter of mere months, both occurring by spring of '69.

Was reading a copy of the February, 1969 Estes Model Rocket News recently where Vern mentions in his column that the new 1969 catalog, featuring their Saturn V, would be out by that March.

That would be about the time that I had thought the Centuri Saturn V was out too, so it got me to wondering just who's Saturn V was actually out AND available for purchase first (not just 'announced and coming soon').

Anybody have a reliable memory on the respective availability dates?


Thanks,

Earl


Centuri both offered and delivered first. The Christmas '68 catalog or shopper brochure showed it, and I immediately started a fund for my parents' loose change and proceeds from any odd jobs. I used a piece of graph paper to mark my progress, and by the end of January, I was able to order the kit. I got it about eight weeks later, and built it rather quickly during the spring, attempting to launch it for the first time on July 16, 1969. I got one of the three motors lit, and it limped a few feet in the air and fell over on its side.

The Estes rocket was mentioned in Estes literature at least a few times, with a release date of summer or fall 69. Prototypes were being flown at various NAR events, and I put my order in as soon as I got a catalog number and price! I remember getting it sometime in September 69, as I started building it during a showing of the Ed Sullivan Show. It was dark outside, so had to be around then.

Oh, one other time marker. Harry Stine had an Estes prototype to try to launch for CBS News at the launch of Apollo 11, but NASA wouldn't allow it to fly. Vern Estes also had a prototype at the Cape. (may have been the same one?) The cover of the instructions of the finished kit featured a picture of that prototype on a launch pad, backlit, with the real Saturn V lifting off in the distance.
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Old 12-04-2012, 07:33 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Royatl
Centuri both offerred and delivered first. The Christmas '68 catalog or shopper brochure showed it, and I immediately started a fund for my parents' loose change and proceeds from any odd jobs. I used a piece of graph paper to mark my progress, and by the end of January, I was able to order it. I got it about eight weeks later, and built it rather quickly during the spring.

The Estes rocket was mentioned in Estes literature at least a few times, with a release date of summer or fall 69. Prototypes were being flown at various NAR events, and I put my order in as soon as I got a catalog number and price! I remember getting it sometime in September 69, as I started building it during a showing of the Ed Sullivan Show. It was dark outside, so had to be around then.



Thanks much for the data there Roy. That sounds fairly definitive and seems to back up my 'assumption' that Centuri had been first, but I had no real solid evidence to base that on.

So Roy, do either of those Saturns still exist? Do you remember what versions of packaging they came in?


Earl
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  #6  
Old 12-04-2012, 08:26 PM
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Jerry Irvine Jerry Irvine is offline
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At least through the general dealer network it was Estes first. Centuri was far better in every respect. When someone asked to put my Centuri Saturn V box in a museum it was not at all surprising to me.

Why they didn't want my Enerjet 2250 or 2650 box almost escaped me. Way oversize boxes like NCR.

The Estes SV was shipped in a shipping box for the kit with a two color printed end cap with the kit data. I have one of those somewhere too.

Jerry
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Old 12-04-2012, 08:34 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Earl
Thanks much for the data there Roy. That sounds fairly definitive and seems to back up my 'assumption' that Centuri had been first, but I had no real solid evidence to base that on.

So Roy, do either of those Saturns still exist? Do you remember what versions of packaging they came in?


Earl



No, I wish I still had the Centuri one, as it was one of the best rockets I ever built. It spent a few years in the attic and the wraps split and cracked. In 1980, I ordered a new set of wraps from their address in Phoenix, and was surprised when the package came from Penrose. I started to do the restoration, but my heart wasn't into it, and I combined the Saturn with a Maxi Alpha to create "the Mighty Favog", which looked like any average high power rocket of the 80's, but it was light, and flew nicely on Pro-Jets. It was lost on its third flight on a Pro Jet F40 in the dense trees of a residential area near the UGA practice fields.

The Estes rocket was eventually finished. Didn't like the way the wraps or the engine fairings turned out. It flew once. Couldn't get the two parachutes out the 1.5" tube at the top. Crunch. Eventually incorporated that rocket into other projects.


Oh, the packaging... I got the Centuri fresh off the first run, so it wasn't in anything fancy. I think they eventually slapped a nice label on it, but mine was blank. The Estes was shipped in the full color printed, calendared white cardboard package, and I think mine still had the old black Estes logo.
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Old 12-04-2012, 08:47 PM
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Jerry Irvine Jerry Irvine is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Royatl
looked like any average high power rocket of the 80's, but it was light, and flew nicely on Pro-Jets. It was lost on its third flight on a Pro Jet F40 in the dense trees of a residential area near the UGA practice fields.
Light construction rocks. Pro-Jets rocked.

Jerry
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  #9  
Old 12-05-2012, 06:43 AM
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I can't say which company was first, the kit number, or how many engines, but one or the other, had a kit out in stores mid-summer of 1968. I saw my first flyable Saturn V at a local hobby shop called East Lake Cycle Shop, the summer of 1968, a friend of mine bought and built one.

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  #10  
Old 12-05-2012, 09:08 AM
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sandman sandman is offline
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There was an old B/W photo I saw somewhere...can't find it now...of Lee Prieser and Vern Estes having a sword fight with Saturn V's.
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