Friday, April 23, 2010

The Rocketdyne F1 rocket engine

The F1 is the most powerful single rocket engine ever developed. The F1 is a liquid-fueled engine, burning RP-1 (kerosene) as the propellant, and LOX (liquid oxygen) as the oxidizer. The Apollo/Saturn V rocket which sent Americans to the moon, had 5 (!) F1 engines powering its first stage. Each indivual F1 had a 55,000-horsepower gas-generator turbine, just to push the fuel and oxidizer into the combustion chamber. Each of the F1 engines produces more than 1 1/2 million foot-pounds of thrust, and each one has more power than all three of the Space Shuttle's main engines combined.
The Saturn V rocket was used from 1967-1973, with thirteen launches with no loss of payload -- it weighed more than 6 1/2 million pounds and was only one foot shorter than St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
Each of the F1 engines would use up and burn enough fuel and oxidizer at a rate to empty a 30,000-gallon US swimming pool, in less than 9 seconds.
These engines in their 2 1/2 minutes of use, propelled the huge Saturn V vehicle to an altitude of 42 miles (68 km) and a speed of 6,164 miles per hour (9,920 km/h) and burning 2,000,000 kilograms (4,400,000 lb) of propellant.
All in all, these are the individually and collectively, the most powerful machines ever created by mankind.

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