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Legendary Chinese character

Wan Hu (萬戶 or 萬虎) is a legendary Chinese official described in modern sources as the world's first "astronaut" by having been lifted by rockets into outer space. The crater Wan Hoo on the far side of the Moon is named after him. According to some Chinese sources, "Wan Hu" (萬戶) was a title granted to him by the early Ming dynasty, and his real name was Tao Chengdao (陶成道). As a Ming official he was particularly obsessed with technological innovations, particularly those associated with rockets. He is said to have died in 1390.

The story concerns an imperial Chinese official, referred to as Wan Hu. In order to realize his space dream, he sat on a chair with 47 rockets tied to it, holding a kite in each of his hands, and flying into the sky. But the rockets then exploded, which resulted in the ultimate failure. There are also variations of this story.

The legend of "Wan Hu" was widely disseminated by an unreferenced account in Rockets and Jets by American author Herbert S. Zim in 1945. Another book from the same year, by George Edward Pendray, describes it as an "oft repeated tale of those early days." 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. While according to Mark Williamson most authorities consider the story apocryphal, 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.

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, 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. 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. In the SCP Foundation mythos, SCP 1445 is the chair that Wan Hu used. In the 2000s, the 500 year old chair, which still held Wan's frozen corpse, was recovered from low Earth orbit. The chair is made of Dalbergia odorifera wood, holds 22 rockets rather than 47, and is resistant to atmospheric drag but not micrometeoroid impacts. Wan was dressed in a Ming Dynasty era hanfu and wushamao. An autopsy revealed that he had died from asphyxiation after the chair suddenly decelerated upon reaching low Earth orbit. 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 the French audiobook "Les Enfants de Merde" a chair with ceiling fans attached to the back called a "Uang Who" is a reference to the mythical account. In Kung Fu Panda (film), 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.