Lagâri Hasan ÃÂelebi was an Ottoman scientist, engineer and aviator who, according to the account written by traveller Evliya ÃÂelebi, made a successful crewed rocket flight.
Evliya ÃÂelebi reported that in 1633, Lagari Hasan ÃÂelebi blasted off from Sarayburnu, (the promontory below the Topkapñ Palace in Istanbul) in a 7-winged rocket propelled by 50 okka (140 lbs) of gunpowder. The flight was said to have been undertaken at the time of the birth of 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.
Evliya ÃÂelebi also mentioned another aviation pioneer, Hezârfen Ahmed ÃÂelebi, making a flight by glider a year earlier.
Istanbul Beneath My Wings is a 1996 film about the lives of Lagari Hasan ÃÂelebi, his brother and fellow aviator Hezârfen Ahmed ÃÂelebi, and Ottoman society in the early 17th century as witnessed and narrated by Evliya ÃÂelebi.
The legend was addressed in an experiment by the television show MythBusters, on November 11, 2009, in the episode "Crash and Burn"; however, the team noted that Evliya ÃÂelebi 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. Although the re-imagined rocket rose, it exploded midflight.