Welcome to the first of three parts about "A history of rockets", covering the most archaic fire arrows, to the largest behemoths of modern engineeering.
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Early rocketry (Before the 20th century)
Rocketry in the good ol days usually consisted of a powerful kick to increase the lethality of weapons. Rockets could have been used back in the 10th century, but the first recorded use was in the 13th century when the technology was spread across the globe in the wake of the Mongol invasion. The first use of rockets in modern warfare was by the Ming Dynasty in 1380. They created what was basically the first rocket launcher. It was a tube that widened towards the top, filled with 32 fire arrows and a large gunpowder charge to fire them all in basically a shotgun fashion. The craziest thing is that this was probably deployed in the thousands, raining death from handheld "Wasp Nests" as they were called.
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Depiction of the Mysorean
rockets in use against the
British East India company |
This kind of mass arrow firing was the predominant usage of rockets, creating beasts like the infamous Hwacha. However, the first iron-cased rockets were Mysorean Rockets. Mysorean Rockets were iron cased combustion chambers of black powder, strapped to a stick of bamboo. These were lit and launched at the enemy, at ranges far beyond traditional rocket artillery. They used these in combat to great effectiveness against the British East India company. They pierced holes in the iron, creating an incendiary effect, where the fire burned troops. They attached blades, etc. It was brutal.
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| Hale rocket launcher |
During the 19th century, the Congreve rocket was developed, a successor by the British of the Mysorean rocket. These were fairly inaccurate and useless, since they relied on contact to inflict damage. They also inspired the line "rockets red glare" in the USA anthem. Later development during the 19th century resulted in airburst and more accurate rockets, culminating in the Hale rocket. But they soon fell out of usage due to the improving accuracy and reliability of gun artillery.
Rockets up to the V-2 rocket (1900-1943)
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| A portrait of Tsiolkovsky |
At the beginning of the 20th century, there was an explosion of interest in rocketry and several writers references them, writers like Wells and Verne. The first major step was taken my high school math teacher Konstantin Tsiolkovsky who applied the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation (named in his honor). This important equation, also known as the Ideal Rocket Equation describes the relation of momentum and mass of rockets. Tsiolkovsky used this to calculate if speeds high enough to get into space were possible.
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Goddard and his liquid
fueled rocket |
And now we talk about Goddard, a name you always hear in rocket circles. He was inspired by authors like Wells and made a number of improvements to the field of rocketry. He said that rockets should burn fuels in smaller combustion chambers, rockets should be arranged into stages and rockets should funnel their exhaust through a De Laval nozzle, which turns the hot supersonic gas into a cooler hypersonic gas. This culminated in Goddard attaching a De Laval nozzle on the worlds first liquid fueled rocket (which subsequently crashed)
Missiles!
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Katuysha rocket launchers in
action |
With World War 2 in swing and the tide turning against Nazi Germany, the Nazis turned to rocketry as a "Miracle Weapon" developing the infamous V-2. It was a liquid fueled rocket capable of crossing the Karman line (100km) and thousands were launched against the Western Allies. But this was not the only use of rockets in the Second World War. Not. Even. Close. The Nazis also used them in their Nebelwerfer units, and also to assist planes with take-off. The Western allies used them particularly as land assault and amphibious support in various theaters. The most widespread use was with the Soviets, who used them famously in their Katuysha rocket batteries.
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| The Thor ballistic missile |
With the surrender of the Nazis, the USA and the Soviet Union scrambled to grab rocket engineers, with the Soviets getting the short end of the stick. Both nations developed intricate and multinodal systems for delivering nuclear warheads to their targets. The US with Wernher Von Braun and the Soviets with Sergei Korolev developed a variety of missiles for this purpose. The US developed many rockets, some of which came on to launch unmanned probes to different planets and eventually humans, the same with the Soviets. As the 1950's ended, tensions were mounting and both sides scrambled to create the infamous Intercontinental Ballistic Missile that could deliver warheads anywhere around the globe.
But, in 1957, Sputnik became the worlds first artificial satellite, kicking off the Space Race...
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Thank you for reading as always, and thank you to Faze Difference for suggesting it on my discord server! Remember to follow this blogs to get notifications when a new post is released and do share it! Thanks Bye!
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