Gunpowder rocket
Cohete de pólvora (flecha de fuego)
- Date
- 1232 · confidence medium
- Place
- Kaifeng, China (Mongol siege)
- Credited to
- Jin / Song army
- Field
- Conflict
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Arrows propelled by a gunpowder tube that burns by reaction; used en masse against the Mongols. The first reaction engine in history.
It is debated whether the 'fire arrows' of 1232 were true rockets or incendiary arrows shot from a bow.
What it led to
- Korean (hwacha), Indian (Mysore) and European (Congreve) military rocketry
- fireworks as a courtly spectacle
- a remote foundation of astronautics
Built on
Made possible
- Hasan al-Rammah's saltpetre purification and gunpowder devicesc. 1280
- Hwacha multiple rocket launcher1451
- Treatise on multistage rockets and delta fins (Siemienowicz)1650
- Mysorean iron-cased rocketsc. 1780-1799
- Congreve rocket1804-1806
- Liquid-fuel rocket1926
- Katyusha (BM-13 multiple rocket launcher)1939-1941
- Portable anti-tank rocket launcher (bazooka)1942
- Korean hwacha
- Congreve rocket