Originally Posted by
wiggy
I'm not aware that was ever the case.
At lift off the five first stage engines generated a total of (nominal) of 7.5 million pounds of thrust ( 5 X F-1s at 1.5 million pounds each)
The nominal lift off weight was usually 6 million pounds, so there was about 1.5 million pounds of excess thrust at lift off.
The fuel burn was about 15 tonnes a second, so yes the weight was reducing rapidly..but OTOH they would still have been in serious ***** if an engine had failed on or just after liftoff.......
Well as I said I'm a total non-expert in this field, I am happy to be corrected.