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Old 01-09-2020, 02:09 PM
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Earl Earl is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sandman
Exactly! The Spacemaster was the first use of the PNC-50SP. It was originally a Centuri nose cone. Estes got it when they purchased Centuri.

The PNC-50SP is also the identical nose cone as the Sky Writer without the cockpit...and yellow.

Here are mine. But I may have missed a few.

The Spacemaster is third from the right. The one on the far left is my own design.


Hmmm... interesting! And...nice looking squad of birds there!

The Centuri Spacemaster was one of the first Centuri offerings that used largely Estes parts. It's a BT-50 body tube based design, which was not a Centuri tube size. I see the Satellite Interceptor was originally available from Estes from 1978 to 1982.

By the early 1980s, when the Spacemaster was released, Centuri and Estes had both been owned by Damon for about 10 years or so (Estes purchased by Damon in Septeember, 1969 and Centuri was purchased in February, 1970 I think). As early as 1974, Centuri had begun to adopt some Estes 'parts'...actually, the plastic Port-A-Pad launcher was one of the first Estes items to 'cross lines' into Centuri territory. Centuri did their version with chrome decals and their classic angled deflector (as compared to the flat, round Estes deflector). But, the launcher was still the Estes Port-A-Pad design, and it replaced the original Centuri wooden tripod pads that had been originally marketed by Centuri since their first catalog in 1962. As time would go on, especially by the very late 70s and very early 80s, more and more Estes parts/items would work their way into the Centuri line.

So, it would seem then that the Centuri/Estes designers in late '80 or early '81 (Spacemaster instruction sheet is dated 3/81) took the basic Satellite Interceptor design based on the Estes BT-50 tube, developed a new nose cone and decals for it, and marketed it through Centuri as the Spacemaster.

There does seem to be some precedent for that even, too (i.e., a new design or product 'released' by Centuri first, then by Estes afterwards). Ed Brown, Estes motor-man, told me in an email 7-8 years ago that the 'Centuri' Super-C motor was developed because Grant Boyd of Centuri in about '76 or '77 wanted a bigger kick motor for the large Centuri Super Kits. So Estes, who was by that time once again making all the Centuri motors after Centuri shut down their Phoenix motor plant in the '74 timeframe, developed and made the Super-C motor. Centuri was the only one to 'carry' them for a number of years before Estes also started listing a C5 motor.

But bottom line, I did not know that nose cone first appeared in a Centuri kit. Thanks for the info...learn something new every day!

Earl
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Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
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