The Mighty F-1

I wish I'd taken a shot with a human beside this monster rocket engine for scale! This is the Mighty F-1 engine which powered the first stage of the Saturn V rocket. 5 of them were clustered together to provide over 7.5 million pounds of thrust. This engine was the largest liquid rocket engine ever built. You can see some closeups of another F-1 engine that is on display at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamagordo N.M. here. This image was taken with the kit lens on my Canon 20D at 21mm focal length with an exposure of 1/320 seconds at f/6.3, ISO 100.

F-1 engine details

Speaking of a plumbers nightmare.... These three parallel tubes carried oxydizer at high pressure, as well as helium and compressed gases. They each have labels which show the flow direction, pressure and what flows through them. Pretty cool - literally in the case of the oxydizer, namely liquid oxygen. This image was taken at 28mm focal length with an exposure of 1/160 seconds at f/4, ISO 200.

F-1 engine details

This is the top end of the F-1 engine centered roughly on the combustion chamber near the bottom. What a plumbers nightmare with pipes and tubes and pumps and all. Some of the next images will show some closeups that you might be able to place using this shot. Looking at the details of this engine was fascinating and included part numbers and parts with labels showing fuel or oxydizer flows. It's hard to imagine the complexity involved and also amazing that 13 sets of 5 of these engines performed flawlessly during their 13 Saturn V launches! This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 200.

F-1 thrust sctructure

This is the thrust structure of the F-1 engine outside the New Mexico Museum of Space History. The engine produced 1.5 million pounds of thrust and had to transmit that thrust into the Saturn V rocket above it. The F-1 was also gimbaled, so that the thrust could be aimed to steer the vehicle as it flew into space. This image was taken at 18mm focal length with and exposure of 1/800 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 1600.

Rockets

This view from below the John P. Stapp Air & Space Park looks back towards the New Mexico Museum of Space History. On the right in front of the museum is the subject of the next few images of the giant F-1 engine which powered the Saturn V rocket. This image was taken at 18mm focal length. It is not quite as sharp as I'd like since I accidently shot it at ISO 1600 with the lens wide open and I also cropped it a bit from the original. The high ISO gives the image a bit of grain which I sometimes like in pictures, but not really in this one. The image was taken at 1/6400 seconds at f/3.5, with a polarizer.

Rockets & more rockets!

These rockets of various types sit outside the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo New Mexico. In the foreground on the left is the red rocket sled that Col. John Stapp used to experiment with high accelleration. A Lance missile (the white rocket at left of center) and an Arobee rocket sit in the middle of the frame and in the back on the right is the mightiest liquid fueled engine ever built - the F-1 engine which powered the Saturn V first stage with 1.5 million pounds of thrust! This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/100 seconds at f/11, ISO 200 with a polarizing filter.