11 April 2015

Unique weapon of the Ming Dynasty — Huo Long Chu Shui (火龍出水)

Ming Chinese Fire Dragon Multistage Cluster Rocket
Drawing of a Huo Long Chu Shui, from 'Wu Bei Zhi (《武備志》)'.
Huo Long Chu Shui (火龍出水, lit. 'Fire Dragon Out of the Water') was perhaps the most well-known of ancient Chinese weapons. It was often hailed as the first ever multistage rocket as well as cluster munition rocket.

A Huo Long Chu Shui consisted of several different parts: a body made out of bamboo tube, carved wooden dragon head and tail, four heavy rockets attached to the bamboo tube to provide propulsion, as well as several incendiary rocket submunition stored inside the bamboo tube. This rocket allegedly had a range of two to three li, and was useful as both long range siege weapon and coastal defence artillery.

7 comments:

  1. was this thing ever used in actual battles?

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  2. Do you think the original configuration would've more resembled the Mythbusters version?

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    Replies
    1. Personally I think it will be a three stage rocket with two motors for first and second stage, then smaller rocket arrow swarm as the final stage.

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    2. Using 2 motors per stage makes it much more manageable than having to ignite 4 motors at once.

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    3. Makes sense, I'm guessing all the stages should be in the "fuselage" of the rocket unlike the depictions?

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    4. That will make it more reliable, but since it can't discard spent boosters like modern rocket I think the rocket motors still have to be put outside.

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