updated 3/11/2001

Lee Piester (above), while in college, wrote a term paper about manufacturing model rocket engines and managing a model rocket company. Soon after graduating, he founded Centuri Engineering in his Phoenix, Arizona garage in 1961. Like G. Harry Stine, Orville Carisle, and Vern Estes, Lee wanted a safe hobbyist alternative to "basement bomber" style mature rocketry. The Centuri name was inspired by the constellation Centauri, which contains some of the stars closest to Earth, with the spelling altered to avoid any imagined legal troubles.

During the space race fixated '60s, Centuri soon grew into its own corporate building, and also bought a couple of early mid-power rocketry pioneers, Coaster (which became "Mini-Max") and Enerjet (know for their clear burning composite engines). The number and variation of kits and motors and accessories multiplied.

When interest in space and rockets peaked with the Apollo moon walks, Damon, a pharmaceutical company, bought Estes and soon afterwards, Centuri. Lee Piester stayed on for a few years, and was replaced by Grant Boyd. Enerjet and Mini-Max were discontinued. Despite that, some of the most creative and interesting kits were produced in the '70s, partially because of competition with Estes.

However the sales of model rockets waned after the moon walks ended, and not even the sci-fi boom of the late '70s could revive them. Centuri dropped its mini-engine fleet in 1980, which symbolized the beginning of their phase out. Products were rapidly pruned from the line. Any new items were based on Estes parts. The bright four color catalogs of the '70s were replaced with the bland two color catalogs of the early '80s. Centuri offices became a P.O. Box in Phoenix, and then one in Estes' home town of Penrose, Colorado. The last Centuri catalog was issued in 1983. The 1984 Estes Club Catalog had close-out deals on Centuri kits and engines. Estes recycled some Centuri parts and ideas in the years since.

Lee Piester went on to start the Hobby Bench franchise in the American South West. He also was a founder of the stillborn Enertech high power rocket company. Many Enertech kits, engines and accessories were revived under different owner ship as Aerotech.

Bill Stine, Grant Boyd, and other former Centuri employees founded Quest Model Rocketry in the early '90s, which used tooling from another defunct model rocket company, AVI Astroport.

Because corporate tax laws are reputedly more favorable in Arizona than they are in Colorado, Centuri became the phantom parent company of Estes, and any associated company, like Cox in the post-Damon days . Much of the Estes and Cox literature of the past couple years even says "Centuri Corporation" on it.