Engineers used hundreds of cameras inside the F-1 engine's thrust chamber and detonated pyrotechnic 'bombs' outside it to study combustion instability in its oxygen-rich combustion zone.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by Smithsonian oral history and independent aerospace history source (enginehistory.org) describing the same bomb-testing and camera methodology used by Rocketdyne engineers on the F-1 engine.
Sources
- We Built the Saturn V (smithsonianmag.com)
- https://www.enginehistory.org/Rockets/RPE08.11/RPE08.11.shtml (enginehistory.org)
- https://historynet.com/rocketdyne-f-1-engines-powered-saturn-v-rockets-into-space/ (historynet.com)
- https://lflank.wordpress.com/2020/07/21/the-f-1-rocket-engine/ (lflank.wordpress.com)