First iron rockets were developed in India

The early iron rockets were devised by Tipu Sultan, a Muslim king of the South Indian Kingdom of Mysore. He triumphantly used these iron rockets against the larger forces of the British East India Company during the Anglo-Mysore Wars. The Mysore rockets of this period was much more improved than what the British had seen, chiefly because of the use of iron tubes for holding the propellant; this enabled higher thrust and longer range for the missile (up to two km range). After Tipu's eventual defeat in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War and the capture of the Mysore iron rockets, they were influential in British rocket construction and were soon put into use in the Napoleonic Wars.