Centuri Space Shuttle KC-6
 

Been awhile since I've posted anything. I picked this up off eBay several years ago. It was in the a box of rockets I bought.

This is the first version with balsa nose cones and paper cockpits. Anyone familiar with the newer version with the plastic nose cones will notice the balsa nose of the orbiter is stubby in comparison. It also had the original instructions in the box. Only things missing are the decals and the rear elevators for the orbiter, I saw them in another auction that had already ended, bummer. The paper elevators for the booster were present, but deteriorated beyond usability. Another difference between this version and later versions is it doesn't have stabilizer ribs under the wings of the booster.

I'm going to restore it. The glue that was used by the original owner to assemble the shuttle had become very brittle with age, and all the parts popped of the tubes with ease.

I will scan the balsa parts before I begin the restoration. They seem a little different from the ones on JimZ.

Here are scans of the balsa patterns.

Since they were missing in what I got, I suggest using the orbiter elevator leading and trailing patterns from the JimZ site. http://www.spacemodeling.org/jimz/kc-6.htm

Here are scans of the instructions for this version and space shuttle concept info.

I never had one of these, but came very close in the early 1970's. A hobby shop in a high-end area, had one. But they priced it about $1.50 above the catalog price. I had never run into this before in a hobby shop.... kits priced above the catalog list price.

I asked about the price, that it was above the catalog price, they said that was their "standard mark-up".

Well, I could not justify doing that. So, I didn't get it. The hobby shops I usually went to, either didn't carry Centuri, or never had that kit. That high-priced hobby shop...... disappeared 2-3 years later. Wonder why?

Later, I saw one fly at NARAM-16 (1974). And was not impressed by the flight profile. So whatever remaining interest I might have had, went away. It's a neat model regardless, but not quite what I was wanting flight-wise.

When Carl brought back this model for Semroc ten years ago, I told him to expect *ahem* squirrelly flights. At NARAM that year in Kalamazoo, he had a couple of versions that he flew on the sport range. One, on 18mm motors, as built from the Centuri instructions, indeed pitched over and made a wild loop before ejecting, with both gliders taking roughly a 45 degree (or worse) path to the ground.

A second one, however, reworked for 24mm motors (don't remember if it had a D12 or C11) had a fantastic flight, obtaining enough altitude that both gliders had time to settle into a halfway decent glide (still wasn't gonna win any awards, but at least it worked as I had imagined from the Centuri catalog illustration.

I bought my first one in the 70s, it was the plastic nose version from a local hobby shop that I was fortunate carried both Centuri and Estes. I don't remember having any terribly bad launches with it. I built it light, no sealer, no primer, just one light coat of paint. I remember I spent a whole lot of time trying to trim the smaller shuttle to get a good glide tossing it from the roof of our house. If you can call a falling brick a good glide. The larger glider was always last to the ground, and did fairly well in comparison. Tilting the rod as Centuri suggests can make a difference and only fly when the wind is calm. Despite Centuri adding the wing ribs, the wings on the larger glider would sometimes crack in the direction of the grain, never was sure if that happened under boost, landing, or both.

I built a Centuri one with the plastic cones back in the early 90's. First flight was awesome. Both gliders transitioned into lazy circle glides and landed within feet of one another. The second flight... corkscrewed right into the ground. Crimped the large glider tube and broke the power pod. I fixed it, but ever since it's been a display model.

Anyone know who designed that rocket for Centuri?

That was Larry Brown.
http://modelrocketbuilding.blogspot...y-brown_27.html

Started gluing the balsa bits back together and sanding. The leading edge of the right wing was too beat up to sand out, I spliced in a thin strip of balsa to repair.

I've also provided some pictures of the balsa cones in comparison with the plastic cones.