History of Rockets - Early Manned Rocketry

Early Manned Rocketry

According to legend, a manned rocket sled with 47 gunpowder-filled rockets was attempted in China by Wan Hu in the 16th Century. The alleged flight is said to have been interrupted by an explosion at the start, and the pilot did not seem to have survived (he was never found). There are no known Chinese sources for this event, and the earliest known account is an unsourced reference in a book by an American, Herbert S. Zim in 1945.

In Ottoman Turkey in 1633, according to one account, Lagari Hasan Çelebi launched in a 7 winged rocket using 50 okka (140 lbs) of gunpowder from Sarayburnu, the point below Topkapı Palace, and made a successful landing- winning him a position in the Ottoman army. As told, the flight was accomplished as a part of celebrations performed for the birth of Ottoman Emperor Murat IV's daughter and was rewarded by the sultan; there are no known sultanate records of the event or reward. The flight was estimated to have lasted about 200 seconds and the maximum height reached around 300 meters.

On 15 March 1928 von Opel tested his first rocket-powered car, the RAK.1 and achieved a top speed of 75 km/h (47 mph) in it, proving the concept. Less than two months later, he reached a speed of 230 km/h (143 mph) in the RAK.2, driven by 24 solid-fuel rockets. The Lippisch Ente a rocket-powered glider was produced on June 11, 1928, piloted by Fritz Stamer. The aircraft exploded on its second test flight, before von Opel had a chance to pilot it himself, so he commissioned in a new aircraft, also called the RAK.1 from Julius Hatry, and flew it at Frankfurt-am-Main on 30 September 1929. In the meantime, another mishap had claimed the RAK.3, a rocket-powered railway car powered by 30 solid-fuel rockets and which reached a speed of 254 km/h (157 mph).