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Old 02-24-2015, 08:05 PM
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Earl Earl is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stefanj
It is surprising that the LIA-100 went away. The smaller tripod was probably better for high power than the plastic units Centuri started selling for use with smaller models in the early 70s, but you'd think that a company (Enerjet) trying to project a more professional image would offer a sturdier pad.

At NARCON last weekend Lee Piester said something to the effect that those tubes were some of the best he'd ever seen. From the limited samples I've seen, I agree. The cone and fins that came with my 1968 vintage Aero Dart were also top-notch.

Yeah, cost-cutting and eliminating speciality products probably did in the "MiniMax" rockets. Seeing those disappear between 1971 (my first Centuri catalog) and 1972 was a real let-down. Being able to have those models was a driving force of my rocketry efforts around ten years ago; I managed to clone nearly all of them before Semroc made it easy!


Ahh, the 1971 Centuri catalog! That was my first catalog ever. Got it in late 1970 and just about memorized every page. Still have that copy, but boy is it worn! Here a couple years ago I was able to get a mint copy of that same catalog and geez was I reminded of just how faded and worn my original was!

That was a great catalog with all their regular kits, but also was the last that had the minimax kits and motors and the introduction of the Enerjet engines.

I can understand the end of production of the minimax motors once the Enerjets were released (and a storm induced fire at the minimax plant actually put an end to their production, as I understand), but dropping the minimax kits themselves, especially when they had some great new Enerjet motors to fly them with was still a disappointment.

Earl
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Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
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