Centuri ran a full double page of full color decals in the catalogs for several years. For 1972-1974, this model (which I don't recognize) was used to display some of the many decals. It has a big wide mid-section with reducers fore and aft, pods all around a la Orion or Athena, and what looks like five or six fins? Anyone know what this model is? Thanks.

http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/no...a/72cen068.html

It was a model just to demonstrate the decals, basically. It was never a kit offered for sale.

Earl

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

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

Should be named "Whole Lotta DRAG".

__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

In multiple ways.

__________________
Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Centuri Design Contest F-150 Hurricane Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc Starfighter Scorpion Estes F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II Semroc Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark, Groonie Der V 1/2

IIRC, Buzz Nau (Eagle3) had Carl McLawhorn of Semroc pull together some parts to build this rocket.

Centuri didn't release it as a kit, but this was a typical "look what you can do with these parts" example, kind of like the one in the Estes parts catalog that didn't have any kind of recovery system.

Cheers,

__________________
Jay Goemmer
"Centuri Guy"/"Tau Zero"
YORF Member 28
Semroc SAM #0029
NAR 86131


"I think about organizing things all the time. Never seems to happen. I find something that piques my interest and I'm off on a quest. Or a Centuri. "

--Bill Eichelberger, 02/22/2022


“Centuri fret buzz in an updated form.”
Bill “Wallyum” Eichelberger re: Estes Flutter-By
03 Sept 2014

Looking at this model off and on for decades now, I'd say the following parts would make it (list is from top down):

Centuri Parts
==============

PNC-103 plastic nosecone
Approx 4" ST-10 body tube
Reducer, ST-10 to ST-13
Approx 12" ST-13 body tube
Reducer, ST-13 to ST-7
Approx 3 inches ST-7 body tube (this would be motor tube)
PNC (or BNC) -71 noses cone (for pod tubes)
Approx 6 lengths (maybe 5) ST-7 body tubes (for pods)
Five or six balsa fins; Orion kit fin planform

Of course, the lower ST-13 to ST-7 reducer would need to be hollow for ejection gases to activate recovery system. Sep point would be at the upper reducer.

Earl

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

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

I absolutely LOVE "Old School" cluster models ! ! !

Dave F.

That thing is quite the contraption.

__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

Nice. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has at least thought about it.
I didn't post the pic, but in one of this model's appearance in the Centuri Rocket Times, there was a clear warning that only the decals were for sale, rocket not included.

There is also an earlier and less complex edition on the 1971 catalog decals page - which looks like it's clearly 6-fin.

I also had the pods pegged for ST-7, and thinking more like ST-13 -> ST-20 -> ST-13. But I haven't put calipers on the picture yet. I'm not sure if there are 5 or 6 fins, but there is some minimum BT size for that aft section that will allow that number of pods and fins to fit around.

I actually quite like the look of the model, though of course the decal scheme is a little overdone. I was hoping it was a contest winner or design of the month, reader's contribution or something like that.

Are there other (standard issue) models that come to mind that transition from skinny to fat and back to skinny on the way up?

If you have ever looked at the Centuri Technical Report (#33) on Center of Pressure, it does feature this sort of model, though without the pods. This is the nearest I've found in the Centuri literature.

Pretty certain looking at the relative sizes of tubes (especially compared to the ST-7 pod tubes) that it is (from the top) ST-10 to ST-13. Also, Centuri did not have a comparable nose cone (if it was the ST-13 tube at the very top) like the profile of that nose cone on the model. The nose cone shown is a dead ringer for the PNC-103 nose cone used in the Payloader II kit, and others.

Now, down at the very bottom for the core motor tube at the center of the pods, it could maybe be something like at ST-8 body tube (with motor mount) at the very core...I'd have to 'hand cluster' some tubes together in my hand and see what configuration works at the core of those ST-7 pod tubes. But, not sure the core tube could be much larger than at ST-8 and allow that many ST-7 pod tubes to cluster so tightly together. An ST-13 at the bottom (if it were an ST-20 in the middle as you are suggesting), I think, would be fairly well too big.

Earl

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

Rocket-Brained Since 1970