NARRATOR: [GERMAN],, in central
Germany, weapons expert
Wolfgang Stabe is building
an advanced rocket system,
originally developed
in 15th century Korea.
Called hwacha this weapon
is an early artillery device
to be used on a battlefield.
In this experiment,
Wolfgang uses
balloons to represent
the enemy's formation.
The trick of the Korean hwacha
is its ignition mechanism.
One man can fire 100
arrows at the same time.
But will Wolfgang's hwacha
work in this experiment?
[SIZZLING]
[ROCKETS WHISTLING]
At the end of the 16th
century, Koreans are
battling a Japanese invasion.
The Japanese send their
samurai battalions,
fighting in fixed formations,
the ideal target, in theory,
for the hwacha rocket missiles.
In the test, Wolfgang's
success is modest.
 [SPEAKING GERMAN]
INTERPRETER: Well,
that's the result.
I didn't quite hit the target.
But at the end of the day, let's
say it was a dangerous weapon.
NARRATOR: The hwacha works well.
And with many of them firing
away on the battlefield,
the resulting chaos
would be terrifying.
 [SPEAKING GERMAN]
INTERPRETER: To be honest,
this really scares me.
If I stood here, and
arrows rained down on me,
I think I'd just ran away.
And I have no idea
where they'll land.
All in all, quite a potent
weapon, not perfectly accurate.
But one single man can fire 100
arrows in the blink of an eye.
NARRATOR: Wolfgang's hwacha
replica fired its 100 rockets.
They probably wouldn't
have hit attacking
samurais where they stood.
But had they been
racing forward,
they would have met
a hail of rockets
and likely been decimated.
