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Originally Posted by Earl
Here is a scan of the full fin sheet with ruler from a Centuri kit. These are the earlier version of the fins with a 'flat' tip on the trailing tip of the fin. This was changed to a 'rounded' tip around '72 or so.
Earl
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If Randy (from Semroc) reads this, imprinting the laser-cut fin sheets of "Retro-Repro" Centuri and (original) Semroc kits that originally had them--perhaps using screen-printing, or whichever method looks good *and* is cheap--would be a nice, "enhanced authenticity" touch, but also:
More than that, it would enable the kit builders to document the fin patterns (most simply, by photocopying the fin sheets, or by scanning them as PDFs at "No Scale" [100% size] and keeping the PDFs on a thumb drive [a "memory stick"]). This would be useful for, say, intermediate-skill level youth group projects and school Industrial Arts class projects, and:
(*
Here* [see:
http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/ca.../manual/ia.html ] is Estes Industries' booklet titled "Industrial Arts Teachers Manual for Model Rocketry" by Harry T. Smith and Henry J. Warden, in which the Estes Mosquito [the original, balsa nose cone version; Semroc offers this balsa nose cone] was used in the 'Rocketry and Manufacturing' lesson section.) The Mosquito--with the Semroc balsa nose cone, if desired--could be used in that lesson plan, but so could a "more production and assembly work required" Semroc "Retro-Repro" Centuri Astro-1. And, as an aside (but, I think, a useful one):
Unlike the case years ago (although it was not unknown even in the 1970s), a lot of today's teachers and youth group leaders aren't familiar with model rocketry, beyond having heard of it. In Unit 1 ('Preparing to Teach Model Rocketry'), written for such rocketry-unfamiliar teachers and youth group leaders (it's on pages 3 to 5 of the "Industrial Arts Teachers Manual for Model Rocketry"), Estes listed--and the authors described--a
Solid Propellant Teacher's Special (Catalog Number 1456), which--with today's updated accessories--would be a good product for Estes to offer today, as rocket clubs formed in the schools or youth group chapters could also utilize the equipment in the Teacher's Special (and other model rocket companies, large and small, could offer equivalents of this Estes set; just about every model rocket company offers at least one large, more-or-less "Big Bertha-ish"--with balsa fins--model rocket kit). Now:
Estes'
Solid Propellant Teacher's Special contained a Big Bertha kit (which had a unique blue, white, and red paint scheme, along with a special decal pair for the white-painted portion of its body tube--see pages 4 and 5), six model rocket motors with igniters, recovery wadding, a Porta-Pad launch pad & Solar launch controller, building tools (glue, a hobby knife, and sandpaper), and three booklets (which are downloadable and/or printable from the Estes website today): the "Aerospace Education and Model Rocketry" teacher's manual, the "Space Age Technology" student mini-text and its teacher's manual, a current Estes catalog, and Estes' "Model Rocketry Technical Manual." As well:
Such a teacher/youth group leader-aimed model rocketry & literature set would create new and future customers among the adults who would become familiar with model rocketry and continue to use it as a STEM--Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics--(including Industrial Arts) school class and/or youth group course teaching aid, and/or enrichment activity (and in model rocket clubs that would, in many cases, also come into being). It would also create new customers among the kids in their school classes and/or youth group chapters, and:
(A retired UAF--University of Alaska Fairbanks--professor and I are involved in a prototypical example of both; we help Marlys House, a teacher at the Community School in the isolated little town of Eagle, Alaska, who uses model rocketry [and soldering exercises, ham radio & Morse code, and ham radio-equipped weather balloons; Professor Neal Brown teaches these via a Skype hookup] in her STEM classes--she started the model rocketry activities with similar [to the Estes
Solid Propellant Teacher's Special] "care packages" that Neal and I sent to her.) The Astro-1 would also be a good children's--and adult teacher/youth group leaders'--"learner rocket."
I hope this information will be helpful.