Inventing missiles

If it seems that there is little doubt that missiles were invented in China, the date and conditions invented are not determined with certainty. Not because there is no written evidence, but because it is impossible to know the chronicles and documents describing it at the time, it is about tools to fire, carry flames, but are launched by bow, crossbows or other machines or it is true that missiles are actually propelled by gas, created by explosives.

The development history of missiles

Indeed, it has been confirmed that missiles that the oldest texts refer to are in fact only arrows with flames. If only based on completely authentic evidence, it seems that rocket- like fireworks , the first form of propulsion of firecrackers, became a folk game in China during the Tang Dynasty (618 -907).

The use of such thrust to launch the nose to the enemy is confirmed by many stories about the battles of the Chinese against Mongolia in the 13th century. In particular, during their siege of Kaifeng Citadel, the Chinese successfully used rocket launchers to propel a small rocket , including bamboo pipes filled with gunpowder and forced to close to the spearhead, openings towards where Install missile tail wings.

It was the Mongols who popularized rocket technology almost everywhere, in their campaigns. In particular, they used them near Budapest in 1241, then in Bagdad in 1251.

But mostly via Arabs , Europeans know about gunpowder and missiles. Although Albert le Grand gave the recipe to "fly fire " in his book " About the wonders of the world" , but thanks to Marcus Graecus or Marc le Grec (Marc of Greece) that we have a copy. Detailed description of the missile, in his Book of Flames to burn his enemies. The book probably appeared between 1225 and 1250, or 1270. We also note that, among medieval technology pioneers, the Italian Muratori from 1379 used the term The rochetta, turned into a roquette by the French, then turned into a British rocket.

For centuries, missiles have not advanced any further. The most powerful experience still dominates in the production of shells that end up doing the task of the pipe, with disastrous performance.

Since the end of the seventeenth century, to be the central repertoire for the fireworks show, people used stronger rockets, which could carry a high load, mainly flags and other small objects, after Launched into the air, will fall to the ground in turn. There is an intention to tie a small animal into it, let it fall - oh, how terrible it is - hang into a sketchy parachute.

In 1804, British officer William Congreve returned from India, where he suffered the deadly attacks of the missiles of Tippoo Sahib, Mysore's last Muslim monarch, convinced the government of The British emperor entrusted him with work, which, after this, would be the first pure military missile study . He completed a 15 kg model, had a range from 2500 to 3000 m, then two thousand versions were launched into Boulogne city from 1806. Immediately, other great powers were interested in the weapon they have used sporadically in the past, and many progresses have been achieved almost everywhere. But, in the middle of the nineteenth century, war missiles using gunpowder were replaced by cannon bullets.

In 1898, the long history of rockets full of ups and downs had a decisive turning point. An unnamed Russian teacher, Constantin Tsiolkovski laid the scientific basis for space travel based on the use of rocket propulsion using liquid fuel. The work of Caluga teachers is even bigger, because the liquids he recommended from 1903 are hydrogen and liquid oxygen, which are still still fuel (or propecgol) of the most advanced missiles.

At that time, it was still too early for the rulers and private companies to be interested in rockets. Officials themselves consider the era of such tools to be over. Therefore, in the entire third century of the twentieth century, the study of these tools was still a work of enthusiasm, and often without the benefit of some single pioneers. For thirty years, Tsiolkovski provided a massive theoretical work. In France, from 1912, Robert Ernault Pelterie in an article titled Judging the Results of a Way to Reduce Engine Weight, discussed using missiles to launch space devices .

Inventor Robert H. Goddard with the world's first liquid fuel rocket.

At the same time, a young American professor of physics Robert H. Goddard began his extraordinary career as a researcher. His first tests of gunpowder were made in 1915. He then worked for the US military, but by the time of the armistice, the army was no longer interested in his work. So Goddard had to conduct personal research.

In 1919, he published a classic book on rocket technology : A method to achieve great heights. In 1923, he followed Tsiolkovski's point of view and directed his research into missiles using liquid fuel . Three years later, he successfully performed the first, but short, flight of a small rocket, launched with a mixture of light oil (kerosene) and liquid oxygen, rising to a height of 30m. To the indifference of government agencies, officials and the most genuine industrialists, Goddard pursued his brave career, and just before World War II, his rocket - including enough parts of the future space device launcher - has climbed 2200m and reached a speed of 1000 km / h.

Germany also has their own single-missile rocket house, Hermann Oberth , who has published a work entitled " Rocket Launches into Space Between Planets" , since 1923. He also needs help, and in 1928, accepted as a technical advisor to Fritz Lang's film A Woman on the Moon , the contract forced filmmakers to provide the capital needed to build a true rocket, using propellants. liquid, this rocket must be launched when the film is released. This launch was not possible, because Oberth was a theorist rather than a practicing practitioner and could not complete the task on time, but it worked and worked well in the young people of Germany. a great public opinion for the cause of space travel. Around Oberth, there was soon a group of young technicians gathered, among them Wernher von Braun quickly excelled.

A similar enthusiasm in Russia also stirred many young people competing with Tsiolkovski. In the late 1920s, those who promoted the movement were Fridrikh A. Tsander , who made the first liquid rockets in 1930 and Valentin P. Glushko built many large rockets from 1930 onwards. Some of these missiles were later used to propel an aircraft - missiles designed by Serge Korolev , an engineer who promised a brilliant destiny, but was no longer heard before his death. Indeed, war is approaching, and studies are geared towards the completion of military equipment covered in secret.

People are better known about what happens in Germany. Amateur researchers of the VfR (Verein fue Raumchiffart, the Astronaut Society), after using rockets to propel cars - therefore advertised both their careers and the Opel firm - by 1930, began testing small rockets using liquid fuel. However, the enthusiasm of the association was extinguished by the economic crisis, and in 1932, leaders had to ask for help from the army. It was after a demonstration, which was then held for military experts, who captured the benefits of missiles using liquid fuel as a means of attacking weapons. According to Von Braun's own testimony, at that time, he was invited by W. Domberger to join the research center that he led " to provide him with practical means to make a doctoral dissertation on new fire. your".

In 1936, the green light was turned on for General Domberger and the general built on the famous central Baltique coast of Peenemunde, about military military research, which Von Braun took over as the technical leader. When fate became unfavorable for the German armed forces, Hitler realized, belatedly, the importance of long-range missiles. Very large vehicles were given to Domberger, and there were times when 20,000 people worked at Peenemunde, or to serve the facility. As a result, on October 3, 1942, the first experimental missile Aa was launched. On September 8, 1944, the device weighed 15 tons, carrying a ton of this explosive, which was put into operation as V2 was launched to London and Paris.

At the end of the war, Von Braun and many of his team members withdrew from Peenemunde before the Russians arrived, and went to the United States with a V2 rocket store. It is with those people and equipment that the United States began their efforts in the field of giants, and the study of the universe. The ancestors of large, multi-story missiles are now launched from Kennedy's rescue as a V2 rocket, on which a small Wac-Corporal missile is mounted . This device, launched on February 24, 1949 was able to reach a height of 403 km. It is a Redstone missile that Von Braun's team makes first. Then from this device 20,400 kg originated from V2, again to Jupiter missiles , 47,600 kg, consumption of potassium and liquid oxygen. It was with Jupiter that Americans successfully launched their first satellite , February 1, 1958.

Three months earlier, public opinion as well as professionals was stunned by the launch of Spoutnik , weighing 84 kg of Russia, followed by another satellite, weighing 508 kg, only a month later. Thus, it is clear that in the Soviet Union, people also rely on rocket houses, and studies have been carried out for a long time under the auspices of the state, and in the most perfect secret. . For example, it was not until 1966 that the national funeral for Serge Korolev, which no one had heard of since the 1930s, revealed that he was the father of Soviet space missiles .

Soon after, people built increasingly powerful rockets, more reliable, to satisfy the needs of space research and space travel. One of the more unique and long-lasting missiles (ten thousand launches) is without doubt Korolev's R-7 missile ; Tested as a result in August 1957, in October it was put on the first artificial satellite orbit, Spoutnik-1 . Its first floor consists of twenty auxiliary tubes, so its bottom diameter is up to 10m. Since then, there has been a rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States. The race for strength brought victory to the Americans, in November 1967, with the first launch of the Saturn-5 rocket built by Von Braun's team. It is 110m high, weighs 2700 tons at takeoff and can put on the moon an Apollo 45 ton ship , but it was only built to the 18th version. Russia's Energia was the world's strongest rocket, from the day it was put into operation, May 1987, until it was discontinued, in 1995 (for economic reasons).

Finally, France became the third cosmic power, in 1965, with the introduction of small satellite Astéris into orbit, with Diamant missiles. Europe's Arian missile began a glorious career. its 1979; At 48m high, Arian could bring from Kourou launcher in Guyana, to a geostationary orbit, devices weighing up to 1750 kg, in 1996, Arian-5 had a capacity of 6700 kg. The mass increase of these satellites, becoming possible, is due to the development of ejection devices that use push with cold test techniques (ie, using oxygen and liquid hydrogen).