Ground, Air or Rocket Mail?
Rockets are a useful tool for many pursuits ranging from educational tools to placing communications satellites into orbit. However, there is one use that has been brought up time again over the years and that is for the delivery of mail. That’s right, delivering mail through the use of rockets, or rocket mail for short. In this article we will discuss this concept.
Image: The Canadian Aerophilatelic Society Library
The History of Rocket Mail
In 1931 Friedrich Schmiedl launched the first rocket with mail in Austria. The rocket carried 102 pieces of mail for 400 kms between two Austrian towns. He followed it up with a flight that carried a spectrograph along with the mail. Special postcards were printed after the flight to commemorate this achievement.
In the 1930s as well, a man by the name of Gerhard Zuker displayed his mail carrying rockets throughout Germany. He also attempted to convince the postal service in the United Kingdom of the viability of rocket mail. Zuker continued his attempts to validate rocket mail technology with flights across the North Sea. Despite his determination rocket mail never caught on.
Around the same time in India, Stephen Smith the Secretary of the Indian Airmail Society experimented with 270 rocket mail flights. He was successful in sending rocket mail over a river as well as delivering a parcel.
Successful rocket mail flights occurred in the United States in the 1930s. In 1959 the US Navy submarine, the USS Barbero implemented “missile mail” services for the American Post Office Department. This was accomplished through the use of cruise missiles converted to carry mail instead of a nuclear warhead. Excitement over the future of rocket mail built up however, many in the US Defense Department simply saw it as a demonstration of their missile capabilities. The cost of using these cruise missiles for the purpose of delivering mail could not be justified.
Further rocket mail flights occurred with the launching of mail carrying missiles from Russian submarines. As well, rockets launched from Fort Churchill in Manitoba, Canada carried mail. The flights at Fort Churchill were mainly done to gather scientific data. The mail carried aboard was just for demonstration. The impact of the rocket on the ice of Hudson Bay upon re-entry destroyed the mail.
Amateur Rocket Mail flights
In the 1950s amateur rocket fliers began to fly rockets carrying mail. As we discussed in one of our articles last year post cards addressed to Pierre Trudeau and the Queen were flown aboard a model rocket in 1972 in Ottawa.
These flights are generally symbolic as the mail flown in them is retrieved close to the where the rocket was launched. The mail is then dropped into a mail box where it is delivered through the postal service.
The Future of Rocket Mail
Due to the high cost of launching rockets accurately the future of rocket mail does look dim. Still the idea of launching a parcel or a payload of letters in a rocket through the air at high speeds reaching their destination in a matter of minutes will continue to fascinate many. Rocket mail will surely continue to live on in science fiction especially in the realm of retro-futurism.
Ashley McIsaac and Canadian Rocket Mail
Below we have an embed of a video shot and edited by Ashley McIsaac of Ontario, Canada. Ashley launched mail aboard a rocket recently believing the attempt to be the first flight of rocket mail in Canada. Although it was not the first it is certainly a very entertaining video to watch as an on-board video camera is used to record the flight. In the payload section of the rocket were letters with Canadian rocket mail stamps from produced by German Gerhard Zucker in 1936. Additional stamps were used to top up the amount. After the flight, three of these letters were cancelled at the post office making them symbolically delivered by rocket mail. We would like to thank Ashley for his video.
©2011 Sigma Rockets and Aerospace Inc.
