The Servo-Launcher was the first model rocket launcher that I saw. My best friend in the very early 70s got the Centuri Astro-1 starter set in late 1971 and he and his Dad built the rocket (and later rockets they got) and launched them using the Servo-Launcher. Because they launched on visits to one of his grandparents in North Carolina (open farm land there), I never got to see any of the actual launches. But, I understood the basic operation of the launcher.

About 10 years ago I got a complete, vintage Astro-1 starter set off ebay. While I did not build the Astro-1 kit or launcher from that set, about five years ago I was able to snag a partial Astro-1 starter set that had everything but the Astro-1 kit. I had a vintage Astro-1 kit, so I decided that I would, after nearly 50 years, build the kit and put together the launcher like my friend and his Dad had done so many years ago.

The launcher, while certainly different, is an interesting design and nice concept. And, it DOES work. But...as others have guessed, it can be finicky and the balloon does not always fill completely on just one pump of the handle. Sometimes, the safety key does not want to seat exactly right, so checking continuity can be finicky, too. But, it does fold up nice and compact and with just two batteries, I suspect Centuri was trying to show that launching rockets did not always require a huge car battery or a load of D cells. But yes, it is limited to just single engine flights and I'm not sure just how long those two photo-flash batteries would have lasted.

I suspect too that the original assembly version of the launcher as depicted in the first version of instructions posted above proved to be a bit tedious for younger modelers. So, by July 1971 the launcher came with the wiring and contacts pre-installed. Instructions are down to just four pages at this point. The catalog price (between catalog 711 and 712) also had gone from $5.50 to $6.95 to account for the increased cost to pre-assemble that wiring at the factory.

By May 1972 the instructions had been re-done again to reflect that the balloon had been pre-installed in the body of the launcher at the factory, and provide some better clarity of the assembly process. I have not been able to find any other versions of the instructions than these three sets.

Versions two and three will be posted in additional posts below.

Earl

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Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970