| {{{title}}} | |
| File:Lagari.jpg Lagâri Hasan Çelebi's rocket flight depicted in a 17th-century engraving. | |
| Nationality | Ottoman |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Engineer |
| Known for | legendary manned rocket flight. |
Lagâri Hasan Çelebi was an Ottoman aviator who made a successful manned rocket flight.
Account[]
Evliya Çelebi reported that in 1633, Lagari Hasan Çelebi launched in a seven-winged (cone-shaped) rocket using 50 okka (140 lbs) of gunpowder from Sarayburnu, the point below Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. The flight was said to be undertaken at the time of the birth of Sultan Murad IV's daughter. As Evliya Celebi wrote, Lagari proclaimed before launch "O my sultan! Be blessed, I am going to talk to Jesus"; after ascending in the rocket, he landed in the sea, swimming ashore and reporting "O my sultan! Jesus sends his regards to you!"; [Citation needed] he was rewarded by the Sultan with silver and the rank of sipahi in the Ottoman army.[1][2]
Evliya Çelebi also wrote of Lagari's brother, Hezarfen Ahmet Celebi, making a flight by glider a year earlier.
Popular culture[]
Istanbul Beneath My Wings is a film about the lives of Hezarfen Ahmet Çelebi, his brother Lagari Hasan Çelebi, and Ottoman society in the early 17th century as witnessed and narrated by Evliya Çelebi.
The legend was addressed in an experiment by the television show MythBusters, on November 11, 2009, in the episode "Crash and Burn"; however, the rocket constructed for the TV show did not adhere closely to Evliya Çelebi's description, and the final design did not attempt to utilize period materials.[3][4]
See also[]
- Evliya Çelebi
- Hezarfen Ahmet Çelebi
- Inventions in the Muslim world
- Timeline of science and technology in the Islamic world
References[]
- ↑ Winter, Frank H. (1992). "Who First Flew in a Rocket?", Journal of the British Interplanetary Society 45 (July 1992), p. 275-80
- ↑ Harding, John (2006), Flying's strangest moments: extraordinary but true stories from over one thousand years of aviation history, Robson Publishing, p. 5, ISBN 1-86105-934-5
- ↑ Mythbusters "Crash and Burn", Season 7, Episode 17
- ↑ Significant Difference