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View Full Version : Question on tube length on Centuri SST Shuttle


DeWain
02-25-2009, 11:47 AM
I am finally able to get around to building my Semroc clone kit of the Centuri SST Shuttle. If anyone out there has an original, or can clearly remember the original, I have a question. How long are the "engine/ fuel tubes" (the ST5 tubes closest to the main body tube)?

The Semroc kit come with 6" ST5 tubes for the , and the dimension info on JimZ also lists the tube as 6". Centuri's instructions don't list the length (Centuri instructions often left our part numbers and dimensions).

However, if you look in the illustrations in the Centuri catalog and the instructions, it looks like the length is more like 4.5" or 4". What did the original have? Six inch or 4.5"?

Thanks,
DeWain Feller

ghrocketman
02-25-2009, 12:03 PM
Funny you should ask that question because I built two of those into my first venture into rocketry in the mid 70's.
The first one I built was from near the end of Centuri actually offering kits....that one had tubes like the current Semroc kit.
The second one I built was an earlier kit that had much shorter tubes. Whether they were 4", 4.5" or some other length I do not remember, but I do remember noticing it when the two rockets were side-by-side. I no longer have either rocket.

Royatl
02-25-2009, 12:07 PM
They are 6" on the original. Just measured them.

But like GHR said, it could have been both.

Centuri had a habit of substituting whatever parts were available.

DeWain
02-26-2009, 11:39 AM
Thanks Roy and GHR. I think I'll build mine with the shorter tubes, since my mental image of this bird was always the catalog illustration.

The mystery has been solved... there was both an long tube and short tube version.