



The next major development in terms of rocket evolution was most likely due to accidents around 100AD when bamboo tubes filled with a simple form of gunpowder were thrown in fires to provide explosions during religious festivals in China – some may not have blown up as intended and instead flew off propelled by the exhaust gases of the burning gunpowder. However, rockets are a lot more complex than this, and do not typically use steam (except in the case of liquid hydrogen + liquid oxygen propellants) as the propelling fluid. Turn this 90 degrees to have the bird face upward, and you have a very basic rocket concept. As we know today, the faster and the more steam escapes the pigeon, the faster it goes. Steam Turbine and Rocket RocketsĬirca 400BCE, a Greek philosopher and mathematician named Archytas designed a pigeon-like shape made out of wood that was suspended with wires and propelled along these guides using steam demonstrating the action-reaction principle long before Newton formalized it as a rule in Physics. In this post we will discuss some of the history and technical evolution of rockets and turbomachinery – and this all starts with an old pigeon. However, it is interesting to note that both can be traced to the same ancestor. Quite surprisingly, rockets in their primal form were invented before turbomachinery, even though turbines and pumps are both present in modern launcher engines.
