So I was poking around in my basement while on the phone with a friend and came across some model rocket motors that I thought were pretty unique. I was never really into collecting motors but over the years have ended up with tons of them. Here are some that I thought were kinda cool:

1. Enerjet E24-7... I didn't think I had ANY Enerjet motors and was thrilled to find I have several of these.

2. Estes 18mm, full length 1/4 A3-4, 1969... The casing is thick as heck and this is a really long delay! Other than an upper stage motor I'm guessing the Streak was the only model that would even move on this thing!

3. Centuri B3-0, 1967 and 1/2 A6-0s, 1968... The first one was made 2 months after I was, the second was a surprise because I did not realize Centuri ever made "shorty" engines!

4. Estes B6-6, 1973... Hey, its green!

5. Canaroc D18-7, 1981... The casing is plastic and the nozzle looks like tar with bubbles, weird.

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Define "several." The E24's were the only Enerjets I actually bought and flew. I got two; neither ejected. I now have three Enerjet Fs (two 67s and a 52) that I obtained shortly after NARAM last year.



Actually I flew lots of little rockets on this motor. Centuri Micron was one. I also had a couple of rear-ejection altitude contest models I used to fly in my front yard (at the time it was a little smaller than a football field) with these. They'd get a little bit of altitude, maybe be falling for a second before ejection. I "lost" one while flying it in my front yard, when it tipped off an early attempt at a piston and ended up in the top of a tree.

For the average rocketeer, though, they weren't very useful!



well, remember, Estes made those motors for Centuri at that time, and as for why... Hint: look up Firefly, Lil' Hercules.



I'm sure you remember the discussions about the tube company running out of brown paper and having to substitute blue and green.



Yea, I bought some B18 (!) motors a few years ago like that. Mine just were marked by Sharpies, and didn't have the nice label. Didn't know they made 24mm motors. cool.

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Roy
nar12605

1. Nice Enerjet... I don't dare post a picture of what I have of these as I would be accused of being sick in the head

2. Same with the A.8, B.8,B3, and B16s.

3. They didn't, Estes made them for Centuri. They are hard to come by in the Centuri label. Very uncommon in the Estes labeling.

4. Anything Green or Blue is rare; again these colored motors are a result of Estes running out of brown paper to roll motor casings. If you look through the 1973 Estes catalog, you will see the blue motors with the Banshee outfit:

http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/ca...s73/73est4.html

I leave it up to the reader to find the photos with the green motors.

5. Very nice.

Which are uncommon, the B3's or the shorties? My take is the Estes shorties are more common than the Centuri.

AFAIK, Estes made most of Centuri's 18mm motors, both long and short. However, I'm under the impression the later, metric B3 (13mm x 2.25" IIRC) was made elsewhere.

Doug

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YORF member #11

We've all already concluded that!j/k

Doug,

in increasing order of rarity:

Estes 'Shorties', B3 (Estes)/B4(Centuri),B.8, B16 ; only the B4 was made by Centuri

The Centuri B4 - 13mm x 2.5"

Bob

Centuri eventually came up with their own machines, based closely on the Mabel design, shortly before, or during, the Damon purchase (the printers seemed to be much better on the Centuri machines!). Within a few short years, however, Damon moved all engine manufacturing back to Penrose. The Centuri minis were definitely made by Centuri.

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Roy
nar12605

For those of you who have never seen the rare and wonderful Mini-B's...


S.

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I still have 20 or more boxes (4) of B4-5 and B4-7 (or is it 6)

JoeW

I have built a few rockets to take them and launch every once in a while. I never had a cato or burn through, but have had a few bad ejection charges. Not enough pop to blow off te nose cone.