Saturday, July 9, 2011

Starship Epsilon at Centuri


I was reading through TRF archive and came across a thread by Bob Sanford. Bob worked for and developed the Initiator design for Enertek and later Aerotech.
He took a trip to Phoenix and Centuri in 1974.
He took pictures of the Centuri store, it was located in the front of the Centuri facility.
I'd seen this picture once before. I tried to copy it then, but the resolution was too low to be used.

Look in the upper left, there's a model at the end of the shelf, at an angle. That's my rocket!

When on vacation in 1972, I was lucky enough to get a behind the scenes tour of Centuri from Larry Brown. I had won the Centuri Photo Contest with that rocket, the Epsilon. The contest win got me a minibike and factory tour. I met Lee and Betty Piester and the R&D team. I presented the model to Larry after he showed us around.
I didn't know what happened to it until I saw the picture that Bob posted.



In the above picture, the model is displayed upside down.

This is how it should have sat!
This is a copy of the entry picture I sent to Centuri.

At least one of my designs made it to the factory.

1 comment:

  1. Yep, I can DEFINITELY see where Estes got the inspiration for the Xarconian Cruiser.

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