[donaldo]

RIP Neil Armstrong! I never think of our Apollo astronauts without thinking of that mighty Saturn V and those massive F-1 engines. I think it’s still the most powerful engine ever built, 160,000,000 horsepower, seven and a half million lbs. of thrust. Those F-1’s (five in all) collectively guzzled propellants at the rate 15 tons per second. That’s 30,000 lbs. per second. The early combustion stability problems were immense. They were eventually solved after many many hours by copper baffles. I’m awed at that power. That rocket was as large as a Navy destoyer and about 360’ tall. It weighed in excess of 6,000,000 lbs. at lift off. Those F-1’s accelerated that mass to well over 5,000 mph in a little over two minutes. I’ll never understand how the thrust structure of that rocket held up under that power, let alone the bell nozzles of the engines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-1_(rocket_engine)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0Yd-GxJ_QM

A little long, but it gives you an idea of the immense power those five F-1s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3sVuFjJlp4&feature=related

[jboot]

While the Saturn V was massively powerful it was a purring kitten to ride. But I am in awe of those early guys that rode the Redstone, Mercury-Atlas and Gemini-Titan. Those boosters were all wild broncos that beat the tar out of their crews. On top of that the Atlas was immature and was still having gas-generator problems that could lead to catastrophic failure (and did on several unmanned flights). But those fellows rode them without batting an eye. That took balls.