Originally Posted by
Winemaker
Ah, but don't forget that there is the weight of the rocket itself holding it down; the arms only have to hold against the delta between thrust and weight.
You're right - in the Saturn V case you'd be looking at the hold down arms dealing with about 1.5 million pounds (not tonnes
) of excess thrust over mass...of course unlike a static test rig with engines etc potentially bolted in place in the Saturn V launcher case all four hold down arms had to be able to release their "grip" simultaneously ...even almost 60 years down the road still a pretty impressive piece of engineering IMHO.
https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/H...04/ch13-4.html
On 17 May 1965, engineers tested the ability of the first hold-down arm to sustain a vertical thrust of 725,747 kilograms.