Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2013 00:17:27 -0500
From: mark <whitroth at 5-cent.us>
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: [WSFA] Back to the future: the F-1 engine
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

Excerpt:
The F-1 is a gas-generator cycle rocket engine, burning a bit of fuel
outside the combustion chamber to power the pumps of the engine. Earlier
today, NASA test fired an F-1 engine's gas generator segment at the
Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. This is the second F-1 gas
generator firing this year; an earlier test took place on January 10.

The process for test-firing a 40+ year-old rocket engine, even if it's
just the gas generator segment, is complicated: no current launch
vehicles use the engine, so it wasn't a matter of simply grabbing one
from a warehouse somewhere. Engineers removed components from an F-1
engine in storage at MSFC, as well as from another in "pristine"
condition at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in
Washington, and then laser-scanned them using a structured light 3D
scanner. Once this had been done, new gas generator parts were
fabricated from the scans.

"The gas generator itself was no slouch, producing about 31,000 pounds
of thrust when lit. In the full-up engine, this thrust was used to drive
a turbine that produced about 55,000 bhp, which in turn drove the
turbopumps that kept the thirsty engine fed with the three tons per
second of RP-1 and LOx.
--- end excerpt ---

<http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/01/saturn-v-moon-rocket-engine-firing-again-after-40-years-sort-of/>

        mark