F-1 Engine

The Udvar-Hazy Center formerly displayed F-1 engine F-6049 on a dolly toward the rear of the James S. McDonnell Space Hangar. Marshall Space Flight Center recalled the engine circa May 2012 (the picture's caption is wrong); F-6049's gas generator was removed and test-fired in support of the Space Launch System. I was able to photograph F-6049 at MSFC during my July 2012 visit.

According to Alan Lawrie's Saturn, F-6049 was originally installed on S-IC-11, Apollo 16's first stage. During static firing, a different engine caught on fire, causing major damage to two engines and minor damage to F-6049 and the remaining two. F-6049 was initially refurbished in-place, but was later swapped out during post-firing refurbishment. It eventually as placed in environmental storage at the Michoud Assembly Facility, where it under went an audit in 1990.

F-6049 was apparently moved to the Udvar-Hazy Center shortly after my June 2007 visit; Alan first mentioned that the museum had an F-1 engine in August 2008.

Interestingly enough, this engine is displayed with the nozzle extension from F-6045 (another engine removed from S-IC-11 after the fire), which is currently displayed at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center.