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[Obsolete/Outdated] The first multistage rocket in the world
🕑 Added 2018-10-02 13:50:13 +0000 UTC
Recorded in fourteenth century military treatise Huolongjing, the "Fire dragon rising out of the water", or Huo Long Chu Shui (火龍出水), is the first known mention of multistage rocket, which makes Chinese people the inventor of not just rocket, but multistage rocket as well.
Or did they?
The claim that Chinese invented multistage rocket rests on the fact that Huolongjing was written in the fourteenth century. However, closer inspections on various manuscripts and prints of the military treatise have called this fact into question. Current consensus among Chinese academia is that Huolongjing was written no earlier than the reign of Zhengde Emperor (1506 AD to 1521 AD) and no later than the reign of Wanli Emperor (1573 AD to 1620 AD), with the most likely date being the later years of Jiajing Emperor's reign (around 1550~66 AD).
This push the date of invention of Chinese Fire Dragon well into the sixteenth century, possibly slightly behind its European counterpart designed by Austrian rocket pioneer Conrad Haas.
(Two European multistage rockets. This illustration is actually taken from "Künstliche und rechtschaffene Fewrwerck zum Schimpff", the work of Bavarian rocket pioneer Johann Schmidlap.)
So Chinese did not invent the multistage rocket after all, what a let down...but wait!
A new challenger appears!
The Korean Sanhwa Singijeon (산화신기전 or 散火神機箭) looks to be the next contender of the title of "world's first multistage rocket", or so some Koreans claimed. Recorded in 1474 AD Gukjo Oryeui (《국조오례의》 or 《國朝五禮儀》), it predates both Chinese Fire Dragon and Haas rocket by nearly one century.
After the dethronement of Chinese Fire Dragon, the Korean claim seems unassailable, right? Well, not so fast!
As far as I am able to tell, studies on Sanhwa Singijeon prior to 2008~09 generally described the weapon as a cluster munition rocket (i.e. a rocket that carries several explosive submunitions). However, after 2008 Sanhwa Singijeon inexplicably acquired several second stage rockets and began claiming the title of "world's first multistage rocket". Around that time, the notoriously biased and nationalistic Korean movie "The Divine Weapon" was released, with researchers from Korea Aerospace Research Institute serving an advisory role for the movie's weaponry.
(Early version of Sanhwa Singijeon reconstruction that describes a cluster munition rocket, taken from "A study of Early Korean rockets (1377 - 1600)", authored by Dr. Chae Yeon-seok in 1991.)
(New reconstruction of multistage Sanhwa Singijeon by Korea Aerospace Research Institute. The orange tubes in this picture are second stage rockets. It should be noted that the same Dr. Chae Yeon-seok also came out with this design.)
My own reading of Gukjo Oryeui (the book was written in Chinese) finds no support for the notion that Sanhwa Singijeon is a multistage rocket. From description, Sanhwa Singijeon should be more properly classified as a cluster munition rocket, due to the fact that bomblets carried by Sanhwa Singijeon are not rocket-powered. Since Gukjo Oryeui is the sole written source of this weapon, I see the sudden revision in reconstruction design as without reason and unsupported.
I don't make such serious accusation such as deliberately misinterpreting historical sources and fabricating history lightly, especially against a professional researcher much more learned than myself, but in this case I can't help but to chalk this up to a particularly egregious case of "Korean invented everything" syndrome.
Enter the crow
Little do people know, Chinese "Flying crow with magic fire" also qualifies as a multistage rocket (if only barely), due to the fact that its payload includes several Fei Yan (飛燕) micro-rockets. Being contemporaneous to Chinese Fire Dragon, it is certainly not the world's first.
Nevertheless, unlike other examples in this article, Flying Crow actually got past the drawing board stage and entered mass production in the sixteenth century, making it possibly the world's first MASS PRODUCED multistage rocket.
Comments
GreatMingMilitary
There are some parts of this article that I'd like to, but unable to provide better source. For example, translating all the Chinese academic papers that argue for the 16th century authorship of Huolongjing is beyond my capability. "My own reading of Gukjo Oryeui" doesn't really constitute a reliable source either. Then again, I can't proof a negative, so that is the best that I can do. It's easy to come across Johann Schmidlap when reading on Conrad Haas.
Angus MacDonald
This is a terrific, deeply sourced article. How did you learn about Johann Schmidlap? Are there Chinese (or non-Chinese) treatises -- perhaps you have covered them in this blog -- on how rockets were used tactically on the battlefield or in sieges? Were they effective, accurate anti-personnel weapons or was the promise always greater than the reality?
