1981 Centuri B8-3 info ?
 

Hello all-
Hoping someone here can answer this question for me:
Was the B8-3 engine that was listed in the 1981 Centuri catalog actually produced or was it "vaporware" ?
1981 was the first year of the "B8" engines for Centuri that replaced the BETTER B14 series engines. Although both series were offered by Centuri that year, Estes introduced the B8 the year prior in 1980.
I know all the engines at this time for both Estes and Centuri were produced by Estes, and the Estes catalog lists the B8-0, B8-5, and B8-7 with NO B8-3, yet Centuri lists a B8-3, B8-5, and B8-7 but no B8-0.
I have ALL of these engines with each brand label in my collection, with the exception of the B8-3. I never have even seen one of these in the past, and I have seen and have some fairly obscure engines.
Did this one ever actually exist and were they produced and distributed ?
Anybody know the reasoning behind Estes exclusively offering the B8-0 and Centuri offering the B8-3 with no replacement for the B14-0 ?

Interestingly, only the B8-5 survived from 1982 and beyond. All the others were dead after two measley years of production although I have no idea why one would want a B6-0 instead of a B8-0/B14-0. The B8-5 lasted until about 1996 when it also unfortunately died.
I would have much rather seen the B4-4 cancelled instead. While the B4-6 that also was cancelled has value over the B6-6 as a long-burning upper stage engine, I can see absolutely no value in the B4-4 (instead of the B8-5 or B4-6) being kept around along with the B6-4.

I have always thought the concept of a B14-3 (which never was produced)/B8-3 makes a LOT more sense than the B14-7/B8-7 as these were designed to get heavy rockets up to speed quickly. Not sure ANYTHING in that category could use a B14-7 or ANYTHING with a 7 second delay short of any F engine.

That being said, one of my favorite engines to use in the past for crazy flights in my original Astron Sprint was the B14-7. It was a speck in the sky in a virtual flash !

I found a 1991 NAR S&T Certfied Motors listing and it has this:

CENTURI ENGINEERING COMPANY (ENGINES DATED 1975 OR LATER ONLY)
18 x 70 MM B8-0 B8-3 B8-5 B8-7


Not sure what the significance of the above is... but it seems to indicate that perhaps the NAR as late as 1991 had them on their cert engine listing?


terry dean

Well....

I thought I might still have an old pack of B8-3s someplace...and I did, just dug those out a few minutes ago.

They are Centuri B8-3s, three in the little orange/white box, with the coding of 26L1 on them, so one of you can easily deduce the year that was.

So, they did exist, and now I do remember using several packs of these in gliders way back when. Nice motors for good kick/short delay stuff.

Addendum: If I get a chance, I will get photos of these along with a nozzle shot and post them here. Since I dont have a camera I have to wait for someone who does to show up

'82 or '83?

1975 or later was (IIRC) the Estes manufactured motors with the Centuri label. Made in Penrose.

well at least we were able to clear up ghrocketman's question: they weren't vaporware.

terry dean

Thanks for the info...that's what I needed.

Wonder why Estes never Catalogued the B8-3 and Centuri never catalogued the B8-0 ?
That one will probably never be answered....