DRDO keen on rocket museum in Tipu court

SajeevJino

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DRDO keen on rocket museum in Tipu court


The proposal to establish India's first rocket museum in Tipu Sultan's rocket court in Srirangapatna, which fired the world's first war rocket during the Anglo-Mysore war, could make headway now with the new Director General (Life Sciences) of the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), Dr. Manas K Mandal seeming more inclined to make it a reality soon.




Dr. Mandal is expected to visit Mysore later this month with a battery of DRDO officials to inspect the historic monument in Srirangapatna.

Former DRDO Chief Controller (LS), Dr. W. Selvamurthy, had suggested the establishment of the rocket museum during his visit to Srirangapatna almost a year ago.

But after his retirement the project hit a road block as it had no takers both in the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and the Department of Archaeology and Museums, Karnataka.

The DRDO plans to have a life-size prototype of BrahMos, a supersonic cruise missile, and models of a wide range of missiles like Prithvi, Agni and ballistic missiles, besides an original piece of Tipu's rocket at the proposed rocket museum.

Additional Director, DRDO (LS) , Ravindra Kumar, says Dr. Mandal wants to treat the project with priority. "We will now pursue the matter aggressively and see that the project is realized," he said.
Currently, the monument has many encroachments and a portion of its front wall has collapsed.

Former DRDO Chief Controller, Dr. Sivathanu Pillai, had in 2006 submitted a report on the pathetic condition of the rocket court and recommended that it be converted into a rocket museum.

Former President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, popularly known as 'rocket man' for his exploits in missile technology, has devoted a chapter to the rockets of Mysore in his book 'Wings of Fire,' underlining their historical signficance.

DRDO keen on rocket museum in Tipu court | Deccan Chronicle
 

W.G.Ewald

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Do Chinese claim first use of war rocket also?
 

W.G.Ewald

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A military tactic developed by Tippu Sultan and his father, Haidar Ali, was the use of mass attacks with rocket artillery brigades on infantry formations. Tippu Sultan wrote a military manual called Fathul Mujahidin in which 200 rocket men were prescribed to each Mysorean "cushoon" (brigade). Mysore had 16 to 24 cushoons of infantry. The areas of town where rockets and fireworks were manufactured were known as Taramandal Pet ("Galaxy Market")
Congreve rocket

War of 1812

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there. O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave.
 

W.G.Ewald

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The British copied this piece of military technology and used it several wars in the 19th century. Luckily, the British aren't Asians, so no one will criticize them for "shamelessly copying" other states' weapons.
We Americans would not have "The Star-spangled Banner" as our national anthem had they not copied it and used them in the 1812 bombardment of Fort McHenry.

The Defence of Fort McHenry
O! say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
 

dhananjay1

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Tipu's rockets were more of a surprise weapon than real deadly weapons. They just produce some chaos that could be exploited, rather than killing enemy soldiers directly.
 

Swesh

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Congreve RocketsEdit
Main article: Congreve rocket

Tip of a Congreve rocket, on display at Paris naval museum
Mysorean rockets were the first iron-cased rockets that were successfully deployed for military use. Hyder Ali, the 18th century ruler of Mysore and his son and successor Tipu Sultan used them against the forces of the East India Company during the Anglo-Mysore Wars, beginning in 1780 with the Battle of Pollilur.[9] In battles at Seringapatam in 1792 and 1799 these rockets were used with minimal effect against the British.[10]

The experiences of the British with Mysorean rockets, mentioned in Munro's book of 1789,[11] eventually led to the Royal Arsenal beginning a military rocket R&D program in 1801. Several rocket cases were collected from Mysore and sent to Britain for analysis. The development was chiefly the work of William Congreve, who set up a research and development programme at the Woolwich Arsenal's laboratory. After development work was complete the rockets were manufactured in quantity further north, near Waltham Abbey, Essex. He was told that "the British at Seringapatam had suffered more from the rockets than from the shells or any other weapon used by the enemy."[12] "In at least one instance", an eyewitness told Congreve, "a single rocket had killed three men and badly wounded others."[13]

It has been suggested that Congreve may have adapted iron-cased gunpowder rockets for use by the British military from prototypes created by the Irish nationalist Robert Emmet during Emmet's Rebellion in 1803.[14] But this seems far less likely given the fact that the British had been exposed to Indian rockets since 1780 at the latest, and that a vast quantity of unused rockets and their construction equipment fell into British hands at the end of the Anglo-Mysore Wars in 1799, 4 years before Emmet's rockets.

Congreve first demonstrated solid fuel rockets at the Royal Arsenal in 1805. He considered his work sufficiently advanced to engage in two Royal Navy attacks on the French fleet at Boulogne, France, one that year and one the next. In 1807 Congreve and sixteen Ordnance Department civilian employees were present at the Bombardment of Copenhagen, during which 300 rockets contributed to the conflagration of the city.[15]

Congreve rockets were successfully used for the remainder of the Napoleonic Wars, with the most important employment of the weapon being at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813. The "rockets' red glare" in the American national anthem describes their firing at Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. In January 1814 the Royal Artillery absorbed the various companies armed with rockets into two Rocket Troops within the Royal Horse Artillery. They remained in the arsenal of the United Kingdom until the 1850s. Congreve organized the impressive firework displays in London for the peace of 1814 and for the coronation of George IV in 1821.
 

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