View source for Lagâri Hasan Çelebi

{{Short description|Ottoman aviator}}
{{Disputed|date=April 2024}}
{{Infobox person
|name          = Lagâri Hasan Çelebi
|image         = Lagari.jpg
|caption       = A modern artistic depiction of Lagâri Hasan Çelebi's legendary rocket flight
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|nationality   = [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] 
|other_names   = 
|known_for     = First ever crewed rocket flight<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=wWnZAgAAQBAJ&dq=hezarfen+first+flight&pg=PA46 STEM for All Ages] - Seán G.Dwyer
Author House,</ref>
|education     = 
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|occupation    = Engineer
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|relatives     = [[Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi]] (brother)
}}

'''Lagâri Hasan Çelebi''' was an [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] scientist, engineer and [[Aviation|aviator]] who, according to the account written by traveller [[Evliya Çelebi]], made a successful crewed [[rocket]] [[flight]].<ref>Rafiq, Tehmina. [https://ojs.mul.edu.pk/index.php/alirfan/article/download/118/55 "Role of Muslim Scientists in the Development of the Sciences."] Al-Irfan 7, no. 13 (2022): 1-16.</ref>

==Account==
Evliya Çelebi reported that in 1633, Lagari Hasan Çelebi blasted off from [[Sarayburnu]], (the [[promontory]] below the [[Topkapı Palace]] in [[Istanbul]]) in a 7-winged rocket propelled by 50 [[Oka (mass)|okka]] (140&nbsp;lbs) of [[gunpowder]]. The flight was said to have been undertaken at the time of the birth of [[Sultan of the Ottoman Empire|Sultan]] [[Murad IV]]'s daughter. As Evliya Celebi wrote, Lagari proclaimed before launching his craft "O my sultan! Be blessed, I am going to talk to Jesus!"; after ascending in the rocket, he landed in the sea, swimming ashore and joking "O my sultan! Jesus sends his regards to you!"; he was rewarded by the Sultan with silver and the rank of [[sipahi]] in the [[Ottoman army]].<ref>Winter, Frank H. (1992). "Who First Flew in a Rocket?", Journal of the British Interplanetary Society 45 (July 1992), p. 275-80</ref><ref>{{citation|title=Flying's strangest moments: extraordinary but true stories from over one thousand years of aviation history|first=John|last=Harding|publisher=[[Anova Books|Robson Publishing]]|year=2006|isbn=1-86105-934-5|page=5}}</ref>

Evliya Çelebi also wrote of Lagari's brother, [[Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi]], making a flight by [[glider (aircraft)|glider]] a year earlier.

==Popular culture==
''[[Istanbul Beneath My Wings]]'' is a 1996 film about the lives of Lagari Hasan Çelebi, his brother and fellow aviator Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi, and Ottoman society in the early 17th century as witnessed and narrated by Evliya Çelebi.

The legend was addressed in an experiment by the television show ''[[MythBusters]]'', on November 11, 2009, in the episode "[[MythBusters (2009 season)#ep130|Crash and Burn]]"; however, the team noted that Evliya Çelebi had not sufficiently specified the alleged design used by Lagâri Hasan and said that it would have been "extremely difficult" for a 17th-century figure, unequipped with modern steel alloys and welding, to land safely or even achieve thrust at all.<ref name="MythBustersCrashAndBurn">{{Cite episode |title=Crash and Burn |episode-link=MythBusters (2009 season)#ep130 |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1548139/ |access-date=31 December 2013 |series=MythBusters |series-link=MythBusters |network=Discovery Channel |date=11 November 2009 |season=7 |number=17 |time=00:05:35, 00:42:54, and 00:43:11 |transcript=Transcript |transcript-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170407050442/http://tv.ark.com/transcript/mythbusters-%28crash_and_burn%29/6222/DSCP/Saturday_December_05_2009/122354/ |quote=So, unfortunately with myths of this kind, there's no one single version of the story, which means that there's no one definitive rocket design for us to build. ... First of all, the 140 pounds of black powder that he's supposed to have used as his propellant would have been extremely dangerous to handle, not to mention containing all of that explosive force and converting it to thrust would have been extremely difficult. ... And second, the materials that we have available today, all the modern steel alloys, and all the fabrication techniques, like welding — he didn't have any of that.}}</ref> Although the re-imagined rocket rose, it exploded midflight.<ref name="MythBustersCrashAndBurn" />

==See also==
*[[Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi]]
*[[Wan Hu]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

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<!--Categories-->
[[Category:Aviators from the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Aviation inventors]]
[[Category:Aviation pioneers]]
[[Category:Aircraft designers]]
[[Category:17th-century deaths]]
[[Category:Rocket-powered aircraft]]
[[Category:Rocket science pioneers]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
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[[Category:Turkish folklore]]
[[Category:Turkish legends]]
[[Category:17th-century scientists from the Ottoman Empire]]