MaxPF
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Dennis posted about top fuelers, but if you want real horsepower, this is it!
The Rocketdyne F-1 is, to this day, the most powerful single-chamber, single-nozzle rocket engine ever built. Each engine generates over 1.5 million pounds of thrust, and with a total of 5 engines, the mighty Saturn V was capable of lifting more than 6.4 million lbs off the launch pad. To this day, the Saturn V holds the record for the heaviest payloads ever launched into space.
The max rating for each engine during the later Apollo and Skylab missions was 1.522 million pounds of force, which they would maintain for 165 seconds. At their original 1.5mlbf rating, they burned 3945lbs (413.5 US gallons) or liquid oxygen and 1738lbs (257.9 US Gallons) or RP-1 fuel (kerosene) per second. By the time the engines exhausted their fuel, the Saturn V would have reached an altitude of 42 miles and a speed of 6164mph. At that altitude and speed, just before burnout, the engine would be generating the equivalent of 24.6 MILLION horsepower, or more than 123 MILLION horsepower for all 5 engines combined! To put this in perspective, the nuclear reactors at the Palo Verde nuclear generating station are the largest in the US. If every bit of their 3875 megawatts of thermal output could be converted to horsepower, it would come out to around 5 million HP, only about 1/5th of the output of a single F-1 engine! The fuel pumps were powered by a single gas generator and turbine assembly powered by LOX and RP-1. That single relatively small turbine turned 5500RPM and generated 55,000 horsepower! That is roughly 9 times the HP of a Top Fuel dragster engine, with every HP used to do nothing more than feed 15,471 gallons of fuel and 24,811 gallons of oxidizer into the rocket's combustion chamber every minute for it's 2-1/2 minutes of operation.
[h=3]Specifications[/h]
The Soviet RD-170 is more powerful that the F-1, at 1,697,300lbf thrust at sea level. However, it is a 4 chamber, 4 nozzle engine fueled by a single turbopump assembly, so essentially 4 separate smaller engines with a common fuel/oxidizer pump. Thus, the F-1 is still the biggest single engine. The Soviet engine is interesting in that it's thrust to weight ratio is equivalent to the F-1 (82:1), but each smaller engine runs at much higher chamber pressure and has a higher specific impulse, which means it is more efficient.
Finally, Rocketdyne had an uprated version of the F-1, called the F-1A, but no version ever flew before the Apollo program was cancelled. This engine would have weighed 33% less than the F-1 and generated 2 million lbs of thrust, making it the de-facto most powerful liquid fueled rocket engine ever made.
As powerful as these liquid fueled engines are, the most powerful rocket engines in the world, as measured by gross thrust, are the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters made by Thiokol (now ATK Launch Systems). At 3.1 million lbf thrust, they dwarf even the stillborn F-1A. Just two of these boosters, combined with the three relatively low thrust Space Shuttle main engines, generates nearly as much liftoff thrust as the Saturn V (7.45 million lbf vs 7.61 million lbf). The propellant used is called APCP, which stands for Ammonium Perchlorate Composite Propellant. It is mostly composed of ammonium perchlorate, which is a solid oxidizer, and powdered aluminum, which is the fuel. The binder keeps the mixture a solid, homogenous mass, as well as being extra fuel. Of interest is the rocket's exhaust, which contains large amounts of aluminum oxide, also known as alumina. This is the result of the combustion of aluminum.
A proposed heavy launch vehicle called the Ares V, which would use 2 lengthened SRB's for the first stage and be capable of putting more than 414,000lbs into low earth orbit, or sending more than 150,000lbs to the moon. This is over 50% more than the Saturn V, and would make it the most powerful launch vehicle ever built, by a hefty margin.
Now, THAT is horsepower
The Rocketdyne F-1 is, to this day, the most powerful single-chamber, single-nozzle rocket engine ever built. Each engine generates over 1.5 million pounds of thrust, and with a total of 5 engines, the mighty Saturn V was capable of lifting more than 6.4 million lbs off the launch pad. To this day, the Saturn V holds the record for the heaviest payloads ever launched into space.
The max rating for each engine during the later Apollo and Skylab missions was 1.522 million pounds of force, which they would maintain for 165 seconds. At their original 1.5mlbf rating, they burned 3945lbs (413.5 US gallons) or liquid oxygen and 1738lbs (257.9 US Gallons) or RP-1 fuel (kerosene) per second. By the time the engines exhausted their fuel, the Saturn V would have reached an altitude of 42 miles and a speed of 6164mph. At that altitude and speed, just before burnout, the engine would be generating the equivalent of 24.6 MILLION horsepower, or more than 123 MILLION horsepower for all 5 engines combined! To put this in perspective, the nuclear reactors at the Palo Verde nuclear generating station are the largest in the US. If every bit of their 3875 megawatts of thermal output could be converted to horsepower, it would come out to around 5 million HP, only about 1/5th of the output of a single F-1 engine! The fuel pumps were powered by a single gas generator and turbine assembly powered by LOX and RP-1. That single relatively small turbine turned 5500RPM and generated 55,000 horsepower! That is roughly 9 times the HP of a Top Fuel dragster engine, with every HP used to do nothing more than feed 15,471 gallons of fuel and 24,811 gallons of oxidizer into the rocket's combustion chamber every minute for it's 2-1/2 minutes of operation.
[h=3]Specifications[/h]
| Apollo 4, 6, and 8 | Apollo 9 on | |
|---|---|---|
| Thrust (sea level): | 1,500,000 lbf (6.67 MN) | 1,522,000 lbf (6.77 MN) |
| Burn time: | 150 s | 165s |
| Specific impulse: | 260 s (2.55 kN·s/kg) | 263 s (2.58 kN·s/kg) |
| Chamber pressure: | 70 bar | 70 bar |
| Engine weight dry: | 18,416 lb (8,353 kg) | 18,500 lb (8,391 kg) |
| Engine weight burnout: | 20,096 lb (9,115 kg) | 20,180 lb (9,153 kg) |
| Thrust-weight ratio | 81.45:1 | 82.27:1 |
| Height: | 19 ft (5.79 m) | |
| Diameter: | 12.3 ft (3.76 m) | |
| Exit to throat ratio: | 16 to 1 | |
| Propellants: | LOX & RP-1 | |
| Mixture ratio: | 2.27:1 oxidizer to fuel | |
| Contractor: | NAA/Rocketdyne | |
| Vehicle application: | Saturn V / S-IC 1st stage - 5-engines |
The Soviet RD-170 is more powerful that the F-1, at 1,697,300lbf thrust at sea level. However, it is a 4 chamber, 4 nozzle engine fueled by a single turbopump assembly, so essentially 4 separate smaller engines with a common fuel/oxidizer pump. Thus, the F-1 is still the biggest single engine. The Soviet engine is interesting in that it's thrust to weight ratio is equivalent to the F-1 (82:1), but each smaller engine runs at much higher chamber pressure and has a higher specific impulse, which means it is more efficient.
Finally, Rocketdyne had an uprated version of the F-1, called the F-1A, but no version ever flew before the Apollo program was cancelled. This engine would have weighed 33% less than the F-1 and generated 2 million lbs of thrust, making it the de-facto most powerful liquid fueled rocket engine ever made.
As powerful as these liquid fueled engines are, the most powerful rocket engines in the world, as measured by gross thrust, are the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters made by Thiokol (now ATK Launch Systems). At 3.1 million lbf thrust, they dwarf even the stillborn F-1A. Just two of these boosters, combined with the three relatively low thrust Space Shuttle main engines, generates nearly as much liftoff thrust as the Saturn V (7.45 million lbf vs 7.61 million lbf). The propellant used is called APCP, which stands for Ammonium Perchlorate Composite Propellant. It is mostly composed of ammonium perchlorate, which is a solid oxidizer, and powdered aluminum, which is the fuel. The binder keeps the mixture a solid, homogenous mass, as well as being extra fuel. Of interest is the rocket's exhaust, which contains large amounts of aluminum oxide, also known as alumina. This is the result of the combustion of aluminum.
A proposed heavy launch vehicle called the Ares V, which would use 2 lengthened SRB's for the first stage and be capable of putting more than 414,000lbs into low earth orbit, or sending more than 150,000lbs to the moon. This is over 50% more than the Saturn V, and would make it the most powerful launch vehicle ever built, by a hefty margin.
Now, THAT is horsepower
