Centuri Rocket Museum Tour by Lee Piester
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- Опубликовано: 25 авг 2024
- Ever wondered how the first model rocket companies got started? Here's an inside look from Lee Piester, the founder, my Dad. Enjoy this virtual tour of the Centuri Rocket Collection. Filmed in 2017, prior to the museum being dismantled in 2019. The items seen in this video have been donated to the Seattle Museum of Flight. The SMF will be rotating various items for display at the museum, along with other original rocketeer dreamers like Homer H. Hickam, Jr, G. Harry Stine and Vern Estes. Feel free to comment about your memories of Centuri Rockets. Thank you for watching.
I have a Centuri Tarus still in the bag. Lee signed the header at the top of the bag. Took it straight home and put it in a tupperware tub. It's been there ever since.
It survived the Houston flood of 2017 because it was in a sealed tupperware.
I am from Germany and now in my mid-50's. I first got involved into model rocketry in 1978 when Mattel introduced Estes model rockets to the German market. Up to that point model rocketry was basically non-existing here. Unlike the rockets themselves, the hobby did not take off in Germany as intended and Mattel drew back from the market in 1981 ca. However, shortly after that, a small mail order company got founded which specialised on model rocketry. This company, called ESE (Electronics and Scientific Equipment), imported the complete line of Estes and Centuri kits from the US incl. motors and all the accessories needed. So this was my go-to place for all I needed. And now I could even get kits like Phoenix, Maxi Alpha 3 or even the Maxi V2, all of which where not part of the Mattel offerings. Actually, Mattel only had maybe 20 different kits in their line-up, no multi stagers and no D-engine powered kits (due to legal restriction here, which are still valid today :-( ). So, I felt like being in heaven and almost placed orders with ESE on a weekly basis.
I remember very well, that one my first orders included a Centuri Eagle Transporter Starter Kit. I also remember a Centuri Nike Smoke which I still have today in good operating condition. Over the last 20 years I collected many classic kits, primarily Estes but also a few Centuri kits. Unfortunately, none of the super kits so far...
I also remember having sent a letter to Centuri in maybe 1980 asking for a catalog. I was very excited when I got their response a few weeks later in the mail. Unfortunately, they told me that these catalogs are only for the US and they could not get me one. It goes without saying that meanwhile I do have a few... all collected 30 years later thanks to the internet.
Now watching this video is a massive treat, believe me. I am so thankful that you have made it and put it up here!!!!!
It's sad; I wish Centuri would come back.
I still have many Centuri kits (both built and in the bag/box - unbuilt). Great hobby and great company (along with Estes and the others). Thanks for the memories Lee!
Some of my happiest childhood memories are associated with building and flying Centuri rockets. I memorized every word in those catalogs. :)
Best memories! I used to get so excited seeing these at our local toy store!!!
Just watched again and can’t thank your mom n dad enough for bringing such great memories and kits to our generation. IF only you were still around.
Would ❤️ to visit this museum some day Centuri will always be #1.
Excellent video. Thank you for posting. I must admit the Centuri packaging is very good!
Thanks for some of the best years of my life! Bless you and your family Sir.
Centuri (and Estes) rockets brought me so much fun and learning when I was a kid. I just loved building, launching and recovering those things... and when I had my own kids I got to do it again!
Couldn't agree more!
Boy, does this bring back memories. After being rebuffed by our local pharmasist when I tried to build my own model rocket I got your catalog and started my journey with Centuri rockets. 1st lesson; a Javelin with a C6-7, painted silver, is good for one launch - never to be seen again. :^) Your Saturn V was the best flying rocket version ever. Never had success getting all three engines to light so I converted it to E. Holy Moly she flew on the E! Ended moving to Phoenix eventually, imagine my surprise this was Centuri's starting place. I miss those good times.
I drove for days to Phoenix in between duty stations to find Centuri. I didn’t know they were no longer around. Was crushed. Would love to. Is it this museum or buy the parts to clone them. (LJ II, Saturn V & 1b and loved the LongTom and Excalibur. Think I have a cloned X24 bug somewhere. Sigh. LJ II had failed motor and ended up a disastrous flight crashing on edge of payment. Saved for months for that kit.
Oh wow, I first got into rocketry with Centuri in the early 70's. I didn't even know about Estes until several years later. Those glossy full color catalogs were beautiful, and their rockets were as well! I didn't know that the two companies would eventually merge! @6:49 the bottom right black covered catalog was, I believe, the very first model rocket catalog I ever received, and I wore it out!
Thanks for posting!! My first rocket kit was from Centauri. It was the complete starter kit. My favorite Centauri rocket was the Javelin. Many, many fun afternoons!
Just watched this again and concur with closing statement. Flying days in the 70s with Centuri kits are still so memorable. I recently bought “Semrocs clone of “The Point” and Estes remake of the “Long Tom”. The LT being my first two stage. Such a beautiful bird. Straight as an arrow. Sadly. Miscalculated winds and she drifted.
Now I’m trying to get middle and high school involved. Would love to see these kits come back to life.
Centuri were my favorite rockets. They had some really cool designs and kits. I also recall that Centuri made the best igniters. Seems like we never could get the Estes igniters to work, but the Centuri igniters never failed to send a rocket skyward. Thanks for posting this little gem. It really brings back fond memories of my youth.
I agree. The sure shots worked great. And Centuri was always a step above in design. My dad had a partial built Gemini Titan II which at time I didn’t know was incomplete and had plastic fins. “ interesting launch”. Another kit I would love to build with the dual engines.
Estes igniters I had a 30% fail rate.
Learned attic insulation made great chute wadding Nd we had plenty. Every penny counted in the 70s as a kid.
@@stemmentor9700 We ended up using sheets of TP or tissues. Never had a chute or streamer get damaged.
@@nowthatsjustducky hey gotta repurpose what we got. As a kid we had to work for our allowance or birthday or Christmas for kits. Wadding was expensive. I think I tried crepe paper once- but was a home built kit from Saran Wrap tube and mismatched parts from “crash landings”. It was interesting going up n sideways and down before catching fire 🤣. Good times
The Centuri Sky Lab and the Mini Dactyl were two of my favorites.
Also, the Excalibur was another favorite.
For uniqueness, the X-24 Bug, lifting body concept was also a head turner at our club launches.
Skylab and Excalibur were def top models. I had to buy another Excalibur as I never waited for good weather or used small engines and had more trees then fields. It was a slick flying bird like the Long Tom.
WOW ... awesome video!!!!!!! When I was in grade 5 ( 1972 ....10 years old), my science teacher bought a bunch of rockets ... sold them to us at cost ... and let us build them as a science project. I lived in Canada at the time and you could not buy engines. He had a license and as going to let us fire them at the end of the year. I choose the Centuri Groove tube (8:28 in this video). We moved so I never did fire it. In the spring of 1974, my family made a trip to Disney World in Florida. We also visited the Kennedy Space Center. They had engines there for sale. My dad bought me a couple packs ... put them into our luggage and smuggled them back to Canada (few Eastern Airlines ... actual "smuggling" was when we drove from Buffalo NY from the airport over the boarder to Fort Erie Ontario). I finally got to launch my rocket! A few years later, it was legal to buy engines and I built and flew several. Lot of failures ... had a plane launch and just spin .... had a rocket car "lake off" and go right for dad .... In the 00's, I had fun launching several for my nieces. I still have two or three and a couple packs of engines here waiting for the summer so I can launch them for the neighbor hood kids. Just as a side note ... I did buy some engines (probably late 70's or early 80's) from a company ...I they were called "Canaroc" (maybe short for Canadian Rocket ... in business from 1975 to 1982). They were the only engines I had fail. I think we tried their engines twice (so 6 launches) ... I remember at least two of them blowing up! And I honestly mean blowing up .. both times the engine exploded ... spit the case and destroyed the rocket.
I, too, had a teacher help to promote an interest in model rocketry. In my case it was Mr Gavin at Hugh Beaton PS in Windsor Ontario. I think of him often and with gratitude.
God bless you guys!
Wow, much love to your Mom and Dad! I began building and flying rockets in 1968, after a classmate brought an Estes catalog to school one day. I ordered Estes and Centuri catalog at the same time, using of course the ads in the back of a comic book. My launch pad is/was the Centuri pad with the wooden legs, that I modified so I could tilt it a bit. The second rocket I ever built was the Micron, but over the years I built quite a few from Centuri, including the Nike Smoke, the Long Tom, and the Mach 10 glider.
The long Tom is still one of the best “solo” flights I ever launched. So straight. Great separation of boosters and just waved it bye bye as I wasn’t expecting the winds at that elevation. Brother found a few of my rockets in trees years later when I was in the Navy.
I visited your factory store on a road-trip when I was about 10. Bought the box set with rocket and launcher. Fond memories.
I have to be honest, in the 1970s, I was an Estes kid. I never built a Centuri kit, although I would occasionally pick-up one of their catalogs. My local hobby shop's model rocket section was 90% Estes. Now, of course, I wish I had not been so brand-specific. I should have built every rocket I could find!
Thank you so much for this video. I grew up flying model rockets with my buddies and never really outgrew the urge to continue to build and launch. I was basically crushed when Centuri was no more. I still have many rockets, catalogs and my original Powr-Pad launcher (all in storage). I also lost many of my favorites to the dreaded tree monsters in our small launch area! Thanks for the memories!
Hey, sounds like we had the same Bad launching habits. Glue is dried. Biggest motor and as long as no rain. Trees ate most of mine. All I have left is a near complete power pad and some catalogs and hand written mail order forms. I loved how Centuri checked each thing off and returned back with the envelop too.
Gosh I miss this Company. It just isn’t the same. 😒
Boy. Did this take me back. In the 1970's my paper route money went to much of this! I still have a Groove Tube in the basement.
My first rocket was a three sage Centuri rocket in probably the first grade. I remember learning the difference between center of gravity (mass) and the center of pressure by swinging on a string over my head. I grew up and became a rocket scientist in real life.
hi Lee! Charlie Fox was a pal o' mine and gave me a Fire Fly and a 'Space 1999' kit.
I remember lots of those kits! 👍👍
Lots of fun!!
I mostly built from scratch though! 🤷🏻♂️
Bought lots of engens! 😁
Grew up loving centuri. Loved when my mom would go to Woolco and it would include a stop at centuri. Sadly I lost them all in a house fire shortly after centuri closed. Two of my favorites were the flutter by and payloader 2.
This is really good. Lee the Legend🚀
Thank you for this! And tell your dad and mom thank THEM for providing this kid with the stuff dreams are made of and spurring my interest in all things space travel related!
Thank you! Will do!
I had one of those early green packaged starter sets - good times!
I remember as a kid running home from school to see if my centuri catalog had come in the mail. When one of us got one, it would spread through the school that they were out in the mail. It became a contest to see who got one first.
That’s nuts!
Pretty nice. thanks
Seeing the 1966 Centuri catalog launched my model rocket career. I am NAR#11344 SR. I wish some company would make motors like the old century "F" class Hercules motors. The Centuri Saturn 5, Saturn 1B and Little joe 2 were light years beyond anything Estes made.
agree. LJII was the biggest kit $$ wise I bought and got on sale. Sadly first launch was t successful as 1 engine didn’t ignite. Took off but could.not eject the chute corrctly (altitude) the body cam down and pancaked. Still ha e capsule somewhere in my dads house. Worth a fortune on eBay.
The “high power rocketry” perchlorate motors won’t work as a substitute?
Bought my first Centuri rocket in 1965.
The wolverine was my favorite. I still shoot rockets with my grandkids
Loved the history. 40 years later I beg thee to bring back the best kits ever made. I had a few Estes, after joining Navy I tried ordering Centuri and couldn’t locate. Hence my desire to drive through Phoenix in mid 80s of hope.
Thanks fir the history and the memories. Hope to find good replicas of these kits. I miss them. Most were one time flights. Glue dried it had to go up. Waved goodbye. But nice launch.
Long John ( think) was a sleek tall 2 or 3 stage kit and flew perfectly. Never recovered as lost in the sky. ( brother found the body n chute few years later in tree.
Good times.
Enerjet!
8:40 I had the Vulcan model that came in a poly bag. If I'm not mistaken it's center of gravity was adjusted with putty. Not shown, that also came in a poly bag, was the mini-dactyl boost glider. I may still have a mini-dactyl in an opened bag.
I loved Centuri rockets the best. These were the first I were exposed to as a kid. Some of my favourites were (and still are) Alien Scoutship Flying Saucer, Jayhawk and the Fireflash. I still think that the Powr Pad is the best launcher. Must better than the stuff they have out these days. Too bad the big 6V lantern batteries are essentially obsolete now.
I miss building my Centuri kits. Drove to AZ between duty stations to go to the place I ordered my kits from catalog. Will never outgrow it. Now to find a Little Joe II and Saturn V multi engine kit. LJII I had survived one launch. Chute cord snapped. Could. Ever afford the 5 engine Saturn 5. As a mid
1969 catalog: "Sports car not included". Classic
Too bad the prices aren't the same now, I'd start doing it again.
I got into rocketry for a couple years in the early 80s. Estes reigned supreme, but you could find a lot of Centuri kits in the many small shops that were around back then, and I did buy and build a couple of them.
My impression of Centuri was that they were kind of mad, in a really great "Gernsback" way, not afraid to throw ten extra little tubes onto the thing if it looked wicked awesome, which it always did. I had to admit that my Estes rockets, with their much simpler, more conventionally aerodynamic designs, tended to have more successful flights,, sure. But their ultra-safe (which was one of their primary motivations, and much respect to Vern), ultra-slick presentation lost some of that Space Age visionary phantasmagoria, that closer-than-you-think Jetsons future just around the corner, that still makes us dream of rockets today, and the enthusiastic celebration of science that predominated in that age. Maybe I'm just old and nostalgic.
I noticed that just about every Centuri ad listed the same P.O. box, but a different department. Just how many departments did Centuri have? :)
Departments were how you found out which ad brought the response. I had a company where I used the same trick. It was me, myself, and I all in one room. But when I received something for Dept. E vs Dept. I, I knew which placement they were responding to.
FWIW: When I was {much} younger I built the Space: 1999 EAGLE and the X-24 BUG.
I now have a SEMROC version of the SPACE SHUTTLE kit, but have yet to start building it.
*Great video!!*
Orion, SST Shuttle, Space Shuttle, many Javelins. I converted the Ozone research plane to twin C motors. Who can resist 3, 2, 1, LAUNCH!?
What an awesome video. I grew up building and flying Centuri rockets. This brought back some great memories. Two questions....was the Centuri museum open to the public or was it at your dad's house? And second, I see that he has multiples or certain starter outfits (Eagle Power, Big Shot), would he be willing to sell one of those?
The prices I see these go for now on EBay is insane. I went through mid life crisis when I got out of Navy and eBay coming on line. Next thing ya know I had 3 Saturn 5 kits avg 300$ a piece (resold them as couldn’t fly in Hawaii)
There is a company that makes clones and parts for many of these kits. The Long Tom I want to build again as that sucker was the best launch.
I had habit of spraying water on blast deflector and grass to give more smoke during launch. .
It would be so great if someone could obtain measurements from the original metal rockets mr. Piester has made. they look really cool and it would be fascinating to build ones with conventional (NAR safe) materials. they are so cool looking in paint scheme and designs.
What was the origin of the name, Centuri? I always figured it was supposed to be a space-age version of the word century, and pronounced just like century. But with Mr. Piester himself pronouncing it sen-TUURY, I guess I was wrong all these years. :) A combination of "venturi" and "century", perhaps?
The origin is just my Mom and Dad sitting at the kitchen table trying to pick a cool name. At first, it was going to be Centauri, but was simplified to Centuri as it rolled off the tongue better. And you are correct, it's pronounced sen-TUURY. :) I am trying to convince my Dad to retire and make RUclips videos, but at 82, he's still working full time. Maybe if he sees there's enough interest, he will consider it.
A Centuri museum
I had this set in the green box but my launch pad was a square wood box not a tripod type loved building and launching them
The MicroProbe rocket is rare and I did not see one here.
Hmm, Seattle huh? When did it get burned down?
I love those flying rocketry of Centuri Company and ordered it from Centuri Company then build it , flying em . But I found out something’s wrong with Centuri Company as flying rocketry model kits moved to Estes Company but Estes cut popular kits caused flying rocketry modelers and myself are disappointing about loss of NASA rockets leaving alone Saturn V . I haven’t build flying rocketry n flying em for years since 1980s . I’m looking for few Centuri NASA flying rocketry models and Estes Saturn V and 3 feet scale Nazi German V-2 missile then build em and give em to my old school museum as displaying flying rocketry models of old flying rocketry club . School been saved money for new museum because too many older generations of furnitures , desks , older printing machine and more in storage for long time until build new museum till done then move em from storage to museum . It’s museum of Wisconsin school for the Deaf as over 175 years old . School official asked me about it . I was stunned about it and agreed with her . I know Centuri model kits are very rare as hard to find .
This was painful to watch ! Again I now have to tell my children about our demise and what America USE TO BE LIKE !
Estes Aerospace Club Magenta Thrust Bars !
The X24 Bug I’m in the process of cloning now once I find the right stock card to print. The EAGLE was a great flyer. Lost it on 2nd or 3rd flight due to “addiction to flying” and no regards. To high winds 🫣.
Lil Hercules was my 1st kit - and one I want to rebuild all these years later.
There will never be anything like Centuri. ＼(^-^)／