F-1 Engine

The Cosmosphere's F-1 rocket engine is displayed, without its nozzle extension, outdoors in a somewhat unusual way: Supported by a number of posts, allowing the visitor to walk under the engine. The only other engines displayed in a similar way are those at the Air Zoo and the Sydney Powerhouse Museum (the latter, being in Australia, is one of the few F-1 engines which I have not visited).

The engine lacking a "master" rocket engine ID plate, Alan Lawrie traced its paperwork and identified this engine as either FM-104 (a high-fidelity, serialized engine mockup) or F-2003 (the third production engine and the first engine in a production block intended for flight vehicles). Based on the LOX dome (which has the final "fishmouth" LOX dome inlet, rather than the earlier twin-elbow LOX dome inlet), I was leaning toward identifying the engine as F-2003. The combustion chamber jacket is also stencilled with "UNIT 1"; it made some sort of sense to me that Rocketdyne might want to specially identify the first engine of the production block intended for flight vehicles.

While preparing these photos for upload, I noticed that the heat exchanger's LO₂ inlet port orifice plate was stamped with "F-2003" and "2003", seeming to confirm its identification as F-2003.

I photographed the F-1 during a December visit to the Cosmosphere, just before that winter's "polar vortex" hit. Even still, it rarely got any warmer than 2°F. I photographed the engine over the course of three days: The first day was dreary and overcast (i.e., a typical Midwest winter day). The second day was merely cloudy, and the third photography session was a clear morning (when the sun casts a warm, yellow glow).