Wan Hu

In this Chinese name, the family name is Wan.

Wan Hu is a legendary Chinese official described in modern sources as possibly the first man to attempt to use a rocket to launch into outer space.^[1] Possibly depicted as the "world's first astronaut"^[2] and "the first martyr in man's struggle to achieve space flight",^[3] NASA named the crater Wan-Hoo on the far side of the Moon after him.^[4]

Wan Hu
Illustration of Wan Hu, courtesy of Marshall Space Flight Center
Chinese	萬戶 or 萬虎
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Wàn Hù or Wàn Hŭ
Alternative Chinese name
Chinese	陶成道
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Táo Chéngdào

According to some Chinese sources, "Wan Hu" was a title granted to him by the imperial court during the early Ming dynasty, and his real name was Tao Chengdao. As a Ming official, he was interested in technological innovation, particularly concerning rockets.^[5] He is said to have died in 1390.^[6]

While the legend is well-known, there is no direct evidence surviving to substantiate it.^[7] According to Joseph Needham, the story is dubious and may be invented during or after the Chinoiserie period, considering the lack of firm historical reference.^[8] However, Li Chengzhi has argued for the story's plausibility, saying that it may have come from oral transmission by European missionaries who came to China during the late Ming and Qing dynasties,^[9] or based on records in an ancient Chinese document that has been subsequently lost.^[10]

Legend

Basic story

The story concerns an imperial Chinese official, referred to as Wan Hu. In order to realize his dream of reaching the heavens, he sat on a chair with 47 rockets tied to it, holding a kite in each of his hands, and flying into the sky after his servants were ordered to light the fuses to the rockets. But the rockets then exploded, and Wan Hu was gone when the air cleared.^[11][12] 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."^[13]

The possibly farcical text proceeds to describe several other fictional stories of ancient aviators.^[14] 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.^[15]

"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.^[16] Another book from the same year, by George Edward Pendray, describes it as an "oft repeated tale of those early days."^[17]

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.

The legend of "Wan Hu" according to the United States House Committee on Appropriations in 2006:^[18]

Chinese person's space dream could be traced to several centuries ago. Back in the 14th century, a Chinese named Wan Hu attempted to send himself into sky by lighting 47 gunpowder-packed bamboo tubes tied to his chair. Although he got killed in his bold attempt, Wan has since been widely regarded as the world's first person using rockets as a flight vehicle.

According to Walter Sierra, "Though doomed to fail, the Chinese scholar Wan Hu has been universally acknowledged as the first man to try flying to space with the help of rockets. In memory, NASA named the Wan-Hoo crater on the back of the Moon after him",^[19] although according to Mark Williamson most authorities consider the story apocryphal.^[20] Meanwhile, 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.^[9] According to William E. Burrows, "If it really happened, Wan Hu had the triple distinction of being the first person to ride a rocket, the first to fly on a self-propelled, heavier-than-air device, and the first rocket pilot to get killed during a test flight."^[21]

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^{[citation needed]}, 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.^{[citation needed]}
• 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.^{[citation needed]}
• 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, 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."

See also

• Lagâri Hasan Çelebi
• Space exploration
• Larry Walters
• List of inventors killed by their own invention
• Berthold Schwarz - a semi-legendary inventor of gunpowder, executed for his invention.