Image: 'Flying Crow With Magic Fire', a winged rocket bomb
Description: The 'Flying Crow with Magic Fire', an aerodynamic winged rocket bomb from the Chinese military compendium of the Fire Drake Manual, or Huolongjing, written in the mid 14th century with a preface added in 1412. Joseph Needham writes: "The idea was doubtless derived from the use of expendable birds carrying glowing tinder wherewith to set on fire the roofs of the enemy city. But the provisions of wings or fins for increasing aerodynamic stability long preceded anything of the same kind elsewhere in the world. And the provision of an explosive payload was also a new development." (Caption from page 501, figure 208).
Title: 'Flying Crow With Magic Fire', a winged rocket bomb
Credit: Joseph Needham's Science and Civilization in China: Volume 5, Part 7, Military Technology; the Gunpowder Epic (1986, Taipei: Caves Books Ltd)
Author: Jiao Yu and Liu Ji
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No
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