Estes unveiled their 1/70th scale Saturn 1B in 1967. The first catalog appearance was in their 1968 catalog, kit # K-29. Gene Street did the kit design. The retail price was $9.50.
The same Apollo capsule and tower was used on the new Little Joe II kit. The capsule and tower could also be ordered separately.
In the late 1960s, clusters were the best way to launch this big and heavy model. According to the Semroc web page, four C6-3 engines could get it to 600' altitude. Clusters were even more trickier then using bare nichrome for ignition.
Semroc brought back the Estes Saturn 1B in 2006. I bought a kit from Semroc (ERockets) when I found out it was going to be discontinued. The kit price was $99.99.
This will be a comprehensive build, much like the Estes Saturn V. I will be keeping track of how much time each step takes.
Not sure why Semroc decided to discontinue this kit. Will be interesting to see if the new Estes will bring this one back. I thought I read somewhere that an Estes version was already worked up and ready for production.
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous,
DeleteEstes won't bring back this 1/70 scale version. They should be bringing back the Centuri 1/100 scale Saturn 1B. Semroc probably discontinued it because there are some custom tubes used only in this kit. Very few builders would tackle making the tower.