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  #1  
Old 03-28-2011, 08:48 PM
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Earl Earl is offline
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Default Centuri Screaming Eagle: Your First Rocket?

Folks-

Obtained a vintage Centuri 'new kit' flyer the other day (probably originally issued in late summer 1972) and one of the new 'birds' Centuri was introducing at the time was the Screaming Eagle.

For those who experienced rocketry for the first time by way of this kit, I thought you might like to see this vintage literature.

Chime in if this WAS your first kit. Also, specify if your kit featured something outlined in this literature that my Screaming Eagle (circa 1976) did NOT have, and that is a pre-fabbed parachute. I did not know a prefabricated parachute was a part of the original kit 'specs' until I saw this flyer (though I do have several Centuri pre-fabbed 12" chutes in Centuri packaging).

Earl
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Old 03-29-2011, 05:59 AM
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I came onto the model rocketry scene before the Screaming Eagle was produced by Centuri, but the pre-assembled parachute in your kit's literature calls to mind another "pre-fab" job that Centuri offered for a time. Their Arcon-Hi "semi-scale" two-stage model was available both as a "straight" kit and with a pre-assembled motor mount in the booster (and possibly also a pre-assembled motor mount in the sustainer).
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Old 03-29-2011, 06:31 PM
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Yes, it seems that several Centuri kits in the late 60s came with engine mounts pre-installed, in particular some of their two stage kits like the Centaur. I think they stopped doing that for those kits around 1970.

Also, during that same time frame, several of their large scale MiniMax kits came with motor mounts and shock cord lines (those lines were braided steel leader cables, I think) pre-installed from the factory. The MiniMax line of kits were gone when the Enerjet kits were introduced in 1972.

I never understood why they dropped the MiniMax kits (I understand about why they dropped the MiniMax motors). Some of the MiniMax kits were pretty decent designs and featured heavier walled tubing than most all the 'newer' Enerjet kits. Seems the older MiniMax line would have been great with the new Enerjet motors instead of just scrapping most all those kit designs like they did. I guess the Aerodart was about the only MiniMax design they kept.

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  #4  
Old 03-29-2011, 06:49 PM
stefanj stefanj is offline
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Maybe they wanted to reduce the amount of parts they had to handle? The Enerjet kits used standard Centuri BTs and cones.

I have a Aero-Jet, circa 1969. Still unbuilt. The braided wire is attached somewhere on the pre-installed motor mount. There's also a black cloth/elastic shock cord. You're supposed to attach both to the screw eye that goes into the payload section's balsa bulkhead.

(Come to think of it, the screw eye might have come pre-attached to the screw eye. It's been a while since I've looked at that kit.)

RE Screaming Eagle, I remember helping run a Build session at a hobby show at Nassau Coliseum, Mid-70s. We had a few dozen Screaming Eagles to give away.

I remember pre-made Centuri parachutes, but don't recall if the SCreaming Eagles we gave away had them. Nor if the kit had anything else pre-assembled.
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  #5  
Old 03-30-2011, 10:14 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Earl
Folks-

Obtained a vintage Centuri 'new kit' flyer the other day (probably originally issued in late summer 1972) and one of the new 'birds' Centuri was introducing at the time was the Screaming Eagle.

For those who experienced rocketry for the first time by way of this kit, I thought you might like to see this vintage literature.

Chime in if this WAS your first kit. Also, specify if your kit featured something outlined in this literature that my Screaming Eagle (circa 1976) did NOT have, and that is a pre-fabbed parachute. I did not know a prefabricated parachute was a part of the original kit 'specs' until I saw this flyer (though I do have several Centuri pre-fabbed 12" chutes in Centuri packaging).

Earl



Nice Earl!

My first kit to ever FLY was the Screaming Eagle. I launched it when I was 5 years old on the campus of Dominguez Hills Community College, Carson CA.

I did build it myself without any help from anyone ... Lee made that kit IDIOT proof and it shows!

I later found out that it was modeled from the Stellar Spartan; also one of my favorites!

My first actual rocket was the Centuri Micron. It never flew

I built it and remember sneaking into my parents bathroom to get one of my father's razor blades from his shaver to cut the balsa. I had ordered the Micron from a Dracula Comic book advertisement. It took like a month to finally arive ... today if the rocket isn't on our doorsteps within 24 hours of ordering, we call out the SWAT team to attack the shipper

I made the mistake of using too much glue on the motor block and leaving the spacing tool in the body tube for too long and it was stuck.

I painted it with water colors and threw it around my room until it was trash (hey I was only 5 at the time...).

I have always found the Centuri products were of better quality and more interesting than the Estes offerings. Estes didn't really appeal to me until the mid-70's and even then I still longed for Centuri kits such as the 1/45 Little Joe II, the Centuri Super Kits, and the Centuri Shuttles, T-Bird and Orion. As a kid I only had one Orion ... flew it unpainted ... the shock cord snapped and it crash into a car parking lot ... more trash! One of these days I need to get that Semroc clone and relive that flight the right way!

Actually my first introduction to Estes was with their Yankee Cold Power Outfit. I had begged my Grandparents for it as a Christmas gift. I thought it was a REAL rocket with Aluminum tank and all the gadgets to get it operational. Then at a Los Angeles Museum of Science and Industry (LAMSI) summer program for rocketry, I was introduced to the Astron Alpha and the Cherokee D. BTW, I am planning to leave the bulk of my collection to the LAMSI ... as a kid, I would take school field trips there and marvel at the exhibits ... the one exhibit I would spend most of my time at was the large funnel with the steel ball bearings that would 'orbit' the hole at the bottom and just before going down the funnel tube, they would hang there defying gravity ... I think this is what lead me into aksing questions about the Universe I live in ... 'Still More? Tell me why' was a book I would read cover to cover many times trying to figure out things. Well now I know about gravity, normal forces, friction forces, and angular acceleration because of that one exhibit ... I owe the LAMSI and I want to pay them back once I am gone...

Centuri will always remain my favorite of all time!

Jonathan
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  #6  
Old 05-24-2011, 12:00 AM
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JAL3 JAL3 is offline
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I just saw this thread and it does bring back memories. The Screaming Eagle was my first. Mine was part of a starter kit that used a lantern battery launcher that liked to fall over.

When I got back in, I kept scanning Ebay looking to replace the rocket. I found the starter set listed as new and unopened and got it. The rocket was built and damaged, the pad was missing and there was a single B4-6 motor in the box. I was pretty steamed at the time.

Since then, I have repaired the rocket and it flew great. It was just the rocket I wanted anyway!
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  #7  
Old 05-24-2011, 12:09 AM
A Fish Named Wallyum A Fish Named Wallyum is offline
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I have two, one a badly treated Aussie bird that I won on Ebay in 2001, the other a nicely built bird that was part of the Eagle Power Outfit. I flew the Aussie bird, with its badly "repaired" fin at my first ever QUARK launch, the legendary Dust Devil Launch from the construction site next to our normal home at the Lebanon YMCA. The repaired fin held up fine, but one of the other fins broke off when it hit the hard dirt of the construction site. I only planned on flying it that one time, so that wasn't a huge tragedy, but it still cheesed me off. I think the Eagle Power Screaming Eagle is still waiting a first flight. I've had it with me a couple of times, but either ran out of time or got tossed off the field before I could get it flying.
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  #8  
Old 05-24-2011, 01:53 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JAL3
I just saw this thread and it does bring back memories. The Screaming Eagle was my first. Mine was part of a starter kit that used a lantern battery launcher that liked to fall over.

When I got back in, I kept scanning Ebay looking to replace the rocket. I found the starter set listed as new and unopened and got it. The rocket was built and damaged, the pad was missing and there was a single B4-6 motor in the box. I was pretty steamed at the time.

Since then, I have repaired the rocket and it flew great. It was just the rocket I wanted anyway!


JAL,

Great to hear you finally got it the way you wanted!

Its a nice kit, and really simple and I always preferred it over the Estes Alpha III.

Jonathan
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  #9  
Old 05-24-2011, 10:18 AM
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The Centuri Screaming Eagle was the fourth rocket I had and the first I built completely myself.
My father and I got the Citation Quasar and Citation Patriot as our first two.
The Quasar was built and flown the same day and the Patriot was built the same day, painted, decaled that day as well and flown the next day. The Patriot was finished with Pactra Aero Gloss Sanding sealer, Spray-on Aero Gloss White, and Pactra Namel for the Black portions. I can still remember my first whiff of Aero Gloss and Namel sprays from that day....no joke.
Try finishing and flying that fast with today's slow drying enamels.
The following weekend we built a Nike-X together and I built a Screaming Eagle.
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  #10  
Old 05-24-2011, 12:29 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ghrocketman
I can still remember my first whiff of Aero Gloss and Namel sprays from that day....no joke.

I believe it. I was mowing the yard when my first ever box from Penrose came. To this day, every single time I mow the yard and smell the fresh cut grass, I think about that day when the mail man pulled in my driveway, and I want to immediately go inside and build a rocket. Unfortunately, it takes a half a day to mow and weedeat. By the time I'm done, I don't want to do anything but drink a big glass of water and pass out in the floor.
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