Experts studying a manual on artillery and siege warfare from around 1530 made a rather startling discovery recently.

AP Photo/Matt Rourke

The images from the manual, written by artillery expert Franz Helm, from Cologne, Germany, appear to show cats and birds being strapped with jet packs and propelled towards a castle.

University of Pennsylvania researcher Mitch Fraas studied the images after they were digitalised and unfortunately dismissed the myth of ‘rocket cats’.

Instead, he claims the text states how the animals could be used to deliver incendiary devices.

AP Photo/Matt Rourke

The manual basically recommends capturing a cat from enemy territory, attaching a bomb to its back, lighting the fuse and hoping it runs back towards the enemy.

Fraas rightly points out this scheme may have had one fatal flaw.

‘It seems like a really terrible idea, and very unlikely the animals would run back to where they came from. More likely they'd set your own camp on fire,’ he concluded.

AP Photo/Matt Rourke