The groundbreaking thing about the Vector V - It used an interesting fin shape that presented four possible root edges. The Viking added the option of three, four or five fin placements.
To the left is an online picture of the OOP Semroc Vector V reissue kit.
This will be a "compromise" build of the Centuri Vector-V, using Estes fins, tubing and nose cone in place of the Centuri ST tubing.
With four possible different root edges these fins couldn't be cut from balsa considering the root edge / grain considerations. The fins were die-cut from heavy card stock, about double the standard centering ring thickness. Centuri called the "fiber" fins, I called them hard cardboard.A few years later the variable fin shape was used again in the Centuri Cub Scouts Akela 1 design. The great thing - every Scout could identify his rocket by the number of fins (3, 4 or 5) and the root edge placements.
Bernard Cawley emailed me with a link to research he did on changes in the Vector V / Viking fin shapes: CLICK HERE It's an informative read about kit parts and how they evolve over the years.
Other parts were found by checking the original instructions at Jim Zs: CLICK HERE
The 1973 Centuri catalog page was at Ninfingers: CLICK HERE
I snagged a Semroc Vector V from eRockets - on sale since it’s now OOP - so now I guess it’s next off the build pile. As a kid I thought it was a cool looking kit from Centuri but turned up my nose at it over the fiber fins - back then it was balsa or nothing, cardboard fins seemed so low rent or something. Silly younger me!
ReplyDeleteHi Openroad,
DeleteI remember thinking "How cheap" when I found the first fiber fins in a Centuri kit. At the time they were probably cheaper than balsa and easier for first time builders. With all the different fin settings on the Vector V, it was the only way they could go.
[shrug] Perhaps my earlier experience with "punch-out" card models may have made me more receptive to use of cardboard as building material. These were often included as "furoku" (extra item) included with a monthly children's magazine from Japan -- think "Highlights" and "Weekly Reader" on steroids, averaging about 300 pages. Chock-ful of with content like serialized manga (comics), short stories, articles, and educational material (ranging from mathematics, science, calligraphy, etc.) -- even had the occasional "life hack" tidbits. The card models ranged fro static display items (e.g. a woolly mammoth or dinosaur), to items like a slide projector (using flashlight to illuminate -- the project included the Fresnel lenses required), phonograph player (metal needle included, as well as a plastic phonograph), rubber-band powered car, paper glider, rubber-band gun, a platform that can elevate to launch paper gliders with rubber bands, a rudimentary pendulum clock (used as a timer to use with the sunlight film), etc.
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