Wan Hu

In this Chinese name, the family name is Wan (or Tao).

Illustration courtesy of Marshall Space Flight Center portraying Wan Hu

Wan Hu (萬戶 or 萬虎) is a legendary Chinese official described in modern sources as the world's first "astronaut" by having been lifted by rockets into outer space. The crater Wan-Hoo on the far side of the Moon is named after him.

According to some Chinese sources, "Wan Hu" (萬戶) was a title granted to him by the early Ming dynasty, and his real name was Tao Chengdao (陶成道). As a Ming official he was particularly obsessed with technological innovations, particularly those associated with rockets. He is said to have died in 1390.

The legend of Wan Hu

Basic story

The story concerns an imperial Chinese official, referred to as Wan Hu. In order to realize his space dream, he sat on a chair with 47 rockets tied to it, holding a kite in each of his hands, and flying into the sky. But the rockets then exploded, which resulted in the ultimate failure. There are also variations of this story.

"Wang Tu"

A precursor of the story of Wan Hu appeared in an article by John Elfreth Watkins, published in the 2 October 1909 issue of Scientific American, which used the name Wang Tu instead of Wan Hu:

"Tradition asserts that the first to sacrifice himself to the problem of flying was Wang Tu, a Chinese mandarin of about 2,000 years B.C. Who, having had constructed a pair of large, parallel and horizontal kites, seated himself in a chair fixed between them while forty-seven attendants each with a candle ignited forty-seven rockets placed beneath the apparatus. But the rocket under the chair exploded, burning the mandarin and so angered the Emperor that he ordered a severe paddling for Wang."

The possibly farcical text proceeds to describe several other fictional stories of ancient aviators. A date of 2000 BCE pre-dates the emergence of writing in China by three or four centuries and pre-dates the invention of gunpowder-based rockets in China by about 3,000 years.

"Wan Hu"

The legend of "Wan Hu" was widely disseminated by an unreferenced account in Rockets and Jets by American author Herbert S. Zim in 1945. Another book from the same year, by George Edward Pendray, describes it as an "oft repeated tale of those early days."

Early in the sixteenth century, Wan decided to take advantage of China's advanced rocket and fireworks technology to launch himself into outer space. He supposedly had a chair built with forty-seven rockets attached. On the day of lift-off, Wan, splendidly attired, climbed into his rocket chair and forty seven servants lit the fuses and then hastily ran for cover. There was a huge explosion. When the smoke cleared, Wan and the chair were gone, and was said never to have been seen again.

While according to Mark Williamson most authorities consider the story apocryphal, some Chinese scholars believe that foreigners from several different countries in the west were unlikely to fabricate a story about ancient Chinese official flying into the sky out of thin air. The tale may be based on the stories told by European missionaries who arrived in China since the late Ming dynasty, and then passed on by word of mouth. Alternatively, these European and American scholars may have indirectly relied on records in an ancient Chinese document that has been subsequently lost.

Popular culture

• In a 2004 episode of the television series MythBusters, an attempt was made to recreate Wan Hu's flight using materials that would have been available to him. The chair exploded on the launch pad, with the crash test dummy showing what would be severe burns. An attempt was also made using a chair with modern rockets attached; however, the uncontrollable craft proved that there were far too many complications for such a thing to have succeeded. It was determined that small rockets that can be strapped to a chair cannot provide sufficient thrust to effectively lift it, giving the legend the label of myth "busted". The view the crew members had of the first test's performance matched what the legend said; after the smoke from the explosion had cleared, both the dummy and the chair had disappeared, though the dummy and the remains of the chair were found next to the "launch-pad".
• In a show about inventions on Chinese Central Television called Tiān Gōng Kāi Wù (天工开物), Wan Hu was said to be able to lift himself by only about a foot (30 cm) using rockets. In most Chinese versions of Wan Hu's story, he is described as an unfortunate pioneer of space travel who was burnt to death because of the explosion caused by the rockets, instead of becoming the first astronaut in history.
• In the BioWare game Jade Empire, the player can read about a character named "Cao Shong" who straps rockets to a chair in an effort to fly. The chair explodes, killing him.
• In the Tokyo DisneySea attraction Soaring: Fantastic Flight a painting of the story of Wan Hu can be seen in the rotunda of the Museum of Fantastic Flight queue area alongside other paintings of legendary attempts at human flight.
• In Kung Fu Panda (film), the main character Po straps himself to a chair with fireworks attached and launches himself into the sky in order to attend the Dragon Warrior reveal ceremony. According to the film's director's commentary the idea was based on "a myth of a low level Chinese official from the Ming Dynasty who tried to go to the moon by strapping rockets to a chair."
• In R.A.P. Ferreira & Fumitake Tamura 's "47 rockets taped to my chair" appearing in the album the First Fist to Make Contact When We Dap

See also

• Lagâri Hasan Çelebi
• Space exploration
• Larry Walters
• Berthold Schwarz - a semi-legendary inventor of gunpowder, executed for his invention.

External links

• WAN HOO AND HIS SPACE VEHICLE
• NASA List of craters
• China's Ming Dynasty astronaut
• (in German) Ein Mandarin träumt von den Sternen