Hi guys, I've always seen small cars being fitted with large engine compared to its size. Nothing much happens except for going real fast (and crashing if the driver is unlucky).

The question is: What would happen if you do the same to a rocket? Let's say you strap ONE of Saturn V's S-1C F1 engines to a Minuteman ICBM without any load except its fuel, what would happen? Will it actually even lift off, or just blow up in front of everyone?

Share your views

P.S. One F-1 engine produce 1.5 million lbs of thrust, compared to a Minuteman, it's just like simply lifting a finger kinda job.

The way I see it, I think it would offset the weight distribution and totally screw up the way the missile works. And it would be kinda pointless to add rockets to it seeing as it's a 3-stage rocket, they could just add more stages if they wanted more range(which it has enough of)

I'd have to imagine that there is a lot of balance that goes on in rocketry to make the thing actually go straight, if you strapped a huge engine to a tiny rocket, I could see it not ending well. I don't think it would just blow up, but I don't think it would end up where you want it to either.

Its rocket science!

Obviously I have no clue, but common sense suggests to me that bolting a very powerful motor to a frame which is not substantial enough will cause all kinds of problems with flexing and stability too.

Wouldn't moment of inertia be important, a longer rocket will be harder to change the rotation of and will have a higher moment of inertia, while a shorter rocket will have lower and so will be easier to rotate and less stable? Rather like with wheelbase in cars.

Didnt the coyote try that one time and the roadrunner simply moved two paces to the left and watched as the coyote plunged over the cliff to his firey death?


Food for thought.

A Saturn V's payload is just the tiny little module in the nose - easily 99% of the weight is either fuel, engines or the structure needed to lift them.

Essentially, if you gave a small rocket the engines of a Saturn V, you'd pretty much just end up with another Saturn V.

Quote from th84 :

Didnt the coyote try that one time and the roadrunner simply moved two paces to the left and watched as the coyote plunged over the cliff to his firey death?


Food for thought.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQzzjBR9Etw

I don't know about rockets, but I did see a jet-powered golf cart when I took my kids to a monster truck show.

http://www.megasaurus.com/teed.html

It was in an enclosed hockey arena, and I swear I could feel the pressure change when he fired it up.

OT - Megasaurus the car-eating giant robot was there too! Good times...

I used to fly Estes model rockets. I had about 8 of them, the biggest about 150cm tall.


(this isn't me, just a pic from Google images)

Another food for thought is:

Is it true that only solid rocket fuel when fired during takeoff, will produce a huge white cloud, while liquid-fuelled ones don't?

E.g. The Space Shuttle's SRB gives off the plume while its liquid-fuelled engine doesn't. And in solid-fuelled missiles, when compared to liquid-fuelled ones (like those in Russia).

Well yeah I guess it depends on what fuel is being used, because that controls which by producs come out the back when it combusts. I've seen solid fuel motors which put out big black plumes of smoke too.