Free Republic

For centuries, humans have been fascinated by flight. In ancient China, kites few to investigate the weather. Inventors such as Leonardo da Vinci developed many ideas about flight, too. Gliders and balloons lifted humans into the sky, but none of the inventions gave a person control of where they flew. Before Powered Flight The physics of flight and propulsion play key roles in who became pioneers. George Cayley used aerodynamics while designing fixed-wing aircraft. His designs would later inspire Orville and Wilbur Wright. Since propulsion is one of the primary requirements to lift a human into the sky for flight,...

In Search of the First Rocket Manby Paul Gilster on January 27, 2016 If you're interested enough in space to be reading this site, you've probably run into the name of Wan Hu. He's the subject of a tale that may well be spurious, but it's certainly lively. It seems that some time around the year 1500 AD, Wan Hu took his fascination with rocketry to the logical limit by building a chair equipped with 47 gunpowder rockets. Lit by 47 attendants, the combined rockets took Wan Hu somewhere, but just where is unknown, as he is said to have...