F1 Rocket Injector Plate
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F1 rocket injector plate. Exactly 6300 holes each no larger in diameter than a soda straw were drilled in the plate through which the liquids were injected. Enlarge detail on an f 1 engine injector plate at the forward end of the nozzle. The injector holes are drilled so that each stream of fuel impinges on a stream of oxygen. What prompted the united states to develop large single chamber rocket engines in a process which led to the largest and most powerful liquid propellant engine ever built.
Rescued from the ocean floor in 2013 this injector plate was part of one of five f1 rocket engines that powered the first stage of the saturn v rocket for apollo 11s journey to the moon. Could five f1 engine injector plates withstand the entire saturn vs mass. The injector plate was 4 inches thick and weighed 1000 pounds. The saturn v used f1 rockets manufactured by rocketdyne.
The injector plate had a stainless steel body to which concentric copper injector rings were brazed. Rocket engine cross sections i have seen have very thin injector plate and are attached to the rest of the engine with not so strong looking connection. The problem was in scale. Fig628f 1 injector plate from the ocean floor the combustion chamber is a semi thermal type 1 meter in diameter made of thin walled tubes of a nickel alloy inconel x 750 rather than the h 1 stainless steel 347.
The rings alternate 16 for fuel rp 1 a highly refined kerosene and 15 for liquid oxygen. The f 1s combustion chamber was a barrel shaped cylinder nearly 3 feet in diameter. This is a preview of subscription content log in to check access. That would not be the case with the f 1.
Fuel and liquid oxygen are sprayed out of these holes under tremendous pressure with each ring alternating. Seconds before the launch of a saturn v we hear the launch commentator calling out ignition sequence start. Five f 1 engines were used in the s ic first stage of each saturn v which served as the main launch vehicle of the apollo programthe f 1 remains the most powerful single combustion chamber liquid propellant rocket engine.