![]() ![]() ![]() Winter proposed in The Proceedings of the Twentieth and Twenty-First History Symposia of the International Academy of Astronautics that southern China and the Laotian community rocket festivals might have been key in the subsequent spread of rocketry in the Orient. In 1400, the Ming loyalist Li Jinglong used rocket launchers against the army of Zhu Di ( Yongle Emperor). Rocket launchers known as "wasp nests" were ordered by the Ming army in 1380. This text mentions the first known multistage rocket, the 'fire-dragon issuing from the water' (huo long chu shui), thought to have been used by the Chinese navy. Subsequently, rockets are included in the military treatise Huolongjing, also known as the Fire Drake Manual, written by the Chinese artillery officer Jiao Yu in the mid-14th century. Internal-combustion rocket propulsion is mentioned in a reference to 1264, recording that the 'ground-rat,' a type of firework, had frightened the Empress-Mother Gongsheng at a feast held in her honor by her son the Emperor Lizong. Rockets are recorded to have been used by the Song navy in a military exercise dated to 1245. A "flying fire-lance" that had re-usable barrels was also mentioned to have been used by the Jin dynasty (1115–1234). Rockets may have been used as early as 1232, when reports appeared describing fire arrows and 'iron pots' that could be heard for 5 leagues (25 km, or 15 miles) when they exploded upon impact, causing devastation for a radius of 600 meters (2,000 feet), apparently due to shrapnel. However Joseph Needham argues that rockets could not have existed before the 12th century, since the gunpowder formulas listed in the Wujing Zongyao are not suitable as rocket propellant. The History of Song attributes the invention to two different people at different times, Feng Zhisheng in 969 and Tang Fu in 1000. The dating of the invention of the first rocket, otherwise known as the gunpowder propelled fire arrow, is disputed. The later models and improvements were known as the Congreve rocket and used in the Napoleonic Wars.įurther information: Gunpowder weapons in the Ming dynasty The use of rockets in wars was revived with the creation of iron-cased rockets, which were used by Kingdom of Mysore ( Mysorean rockets) and by Marathas during the mid 18th century, and were later modified and used by the British. The use of rockets were outdated by 15th century. The Joseon kingdom of Korea used a type of mobile multiple rocket launcher known as the "Munjong Hwacha" by 1451. In Europe rockets were also used in the same year at the Battle of Chioggia. One of the first recorded rocket launchers is the "wasp nest" fire arrow launcher produced by the Ming dynasty in 1380. Usage of rockets as weapons before modern rocketry is attested to in China, Korea, India, and Europe. The technology probably spread across Eurasia in the wake of the Mongol invasions of the mid-13th century. However more solid documentary evidence does not appear until the 13th century. The first rockets were used as propulsion systems for arrows, and may have appeared as early as the 10th century in Song dynasty China. A hwacha manual from the Gukjo orye seorye (1474) ![]()
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