NASA's Baffling Engine Problem

Placing a bomb inside a huge rocket engine and blowing it up while its on to check for instability is such a kerbal solution :D

By "looked back to the v2" I assume you mean they went upstairs and asked von Braun, right?

The world should be humbled by how they found and solve the problem with no CAD help nor simulations

Engines: "explode" USSR: Well, add a more powerful turbo-pump and use 4 combustion chambers... USA: B O M B

I have heard about this combustion instability for quite a while, but never really fully understood it. This video was very insightful.

Air Force: "We want an engine with 1,5 mil pounds of thrust!!!" Rocketdyne: "We did it, here you have it" Air Force: "So guys, what are we gonna use it for???" Also Air Force: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

BAFFLING engine problem, ah man i missed that, that was sneaky.

Neat video!

It's amazing to imagine that only 20 years separate the 1940's and the 1960's. We tend to think that we live in times of rapid change and that it is only accelerating. But - in the time it took us to go from ICQ to WhatsApp, from home PCs to ipads and smartphones, mid 20'th century went from inventing the first long range missile to putting a man on the moon. From fighting WW2 with tanks and very basic airplanes to (relatively) affordable worldwide commercial flights on Boeing 737-100's (1964).

Wait so the airforce just randomly commissioned a really big engine and said "Yeah we'll just find something we can do with this later" and then just scrapped it? Quality use of funding right there

Summary: engine unstable so they put an giant apple cutter on it.

Best technical explanation of the F1 chamber combustion instability I have ever seen. I found this channel recently. It is a really good, no hype source of astro info!! 👍👍👍

American engineers: "Hey, can I copy your homework?" German engineers: "Yeah, just don't make it too obvious."

100% success rate! I was looking for this exact video. I knew about the "bomblet" testing, but I didn't know about the V2 design solution. I know the injector holes were hand drilled. Master craftsman of their age!

Those Germans were pretty knowledgeable when it comes to gas nozzles

"we're going to create an explosion inside of our other explosion to test the engine stability"

The American moon programme was incredible. So many pieces of complex hardware had to execute flawlessly. Phenomenal numbers of people contributed to it. And yet it worked. Three men on top of a giant banger, two sent to the moon’s surface, and all returned safely.

Just to fill in some context--this video makes it seem like combustion instability was first identified on that June 1962 test. This is false. Combustion instability had been the primary problem that was being faced from 1959 on in the F-1. The tests up to that point were mainly pressure-fed thrust chamber-only tests. A number of 'fixes' had been made, and people thought that the instability was solved--that was why they were running the 'long duration' test of a fully integrated engine in the first place. Also, the statement that previous engines had not suffered instability 'because they were smaller' is false. Essentially every liquid rocket engine ever developed (with the exception of the SSME) has exhibited stability problems of one kind or another--it's just in their nature. The difference with the F-1 was that the instability problem (which occurred at around 400-500 Hz with injector designs that look anything like the 'final' one--NOT 2000 Hz) was much more tenacious than ever before.

I'm an engineering student who plans to work in the private space sector, and I just discovered your channel and I just wanted to say that I love it!

Wow, fantastic video! I've watched several documentaries, but never heard about these explosion tests. Great content!