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191:, a Secretary of the Indian Airmail Society, combined his work with his interest in rocketry. His first launch was on 30 September 1934, and he experimented with 270 more by 4 December 1944. 80 of these contained mail, and his achievements include the first successful rocket mail sent over a river and the first rocket to carry a parcel. The
58:. The rocket lands by deploying an internal parachute upon arrival. It has been attempted by various organizations in many countries, with varying levels of success. It has never become widely seen as being a viable option for delivering mail, due to the cost of the schemes and numerous failures.
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Despite the
Postmaster General's enthusiasm, the Department of Defense saw the measure more as a demonstration of U.S. missile capabilities. Experts believe that the cost of using missile mail could never be justified. While during the 1920s a letter between Europe and the United States would not
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Upon witnessing the missile's landing, Summerfield stated, "This peacetime employment of a guided missile for the important and practical purpose of carrying mail, is the first known official use of missiles by any Post Office
Department of any nation." Summerfield proclaimed the event to be "of
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historic significance to the peoples of the entire world", and predicted that "before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to
California, to Britain, to India or Australia by guided missiles. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail."
425:. Their postage (four cents domestic, eight cents international) had been cancelled "USS Barbero Jun 8 9.30am 1959" before the submarine put to sea. At Mayport, the Regulus missile was opened and the mail forwarded to the post office in
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made the flight, which lasted about 9 minutes and carried US mail from the post office in Mojave to addresses in
California City. This was the first time that a crewed, rocket-powered aircraft was used to carry U.S. Mail.
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vehicles. Such systems would allow package delivery anywhere in the world in 30–45 minutes. This idea has been forwarded by Zubrin and was the original business plan behind
Pioneer Rocketplane (later
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588:'s computerized sunglasses (for a mission briefing) are delivered by a missile with a ground-piercing spike on the nose, fired from a shoulder-mounted tube, at the start of the 2000 film
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speculated in 1954 that using small cruise missiles to rapidly deliver mail might be possible for as little as three times the rate for airmail, in part because they could be
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328:" solid propellant mail-carrying rockets interstate, from California, across the Colorado River, and into Arizona. The postal covers were printed for each occasion, and
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to fire shells filled with letters to predetermined landing locations of soft ground. Kleist calculated that a network of batteries could transmit a letter from
368:. A turbojet engine sustained the long-range cruise flight after the boosters were dropped. Twenty-two minutes after launch, the missile struck its target.
139:. Several other launches by Schmiedl occurred through 1932, and similar experiments occurred in several other countries, usually subsidized by philatelists.
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landed on the New Jersey side, less than 100 yards away. This event was preceded by several other successful rocket mail experiments in the early 1930s.
149:. Between 1931 and 1933, he travelled throughout Germany displaying his rocket and claiming that it could be used to deliver mail. After moving to the
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360:– its nuclear warhead having earlier been replaced by two Post Office Department mail containers – targeted at the Naval Auxiliary Air Station at
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supplied Smith with 16 rockets between 23 March 1935 and 29 June 1935. Between them, these "Silver
Jubilee" flights carried over a thousand
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in southern
England, a rocket was launched on 28 July 1934, and a second on 31 July, over a 1600-metre flight path between the
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185:. Both rockets exploded, though most of the smaller second cargo, which included survivors of the first flight, was saved.
493:), which he co-founded. Zubrin has since left the company, which is now focused on pursuing a somewhat more conventional
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in June 1928. The lecture caused many experimentalists to expect the use of rockets for mail as inevitable, and by 1929
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issued a stamp to celebrate the centenary of Smith's birth, calling him "the originator of rocket mail in India".
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launched the first rocket mail (V-7, Experimental Rocket 7) with 102 pieces of mail between the
Austrian towns of
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352:(USPS), in its search for faster mail transportation, with the only delivery of "Missile Mail". On 8 June 1959,
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was made on 23 February 1936, when two rocket airplanes that were launched from the New York side of the frozen
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strategy. The potential of package delivery with reusable launch vehicles is discussed in Zubrin's book
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suggested using rockets for mail in a 1927 letter, and he lectured on the topic at a meeting of the
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in
Florida. The Regulus cruise missile was launched with a pair of Aerojet-General 3KS-33,000
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material ("stamps") used for (and depicting) rocket mail is part of a specialist branch of
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aircraft the company built as a demonstrator for its reusable rocket engines) from
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910:"On This Day: US Postal Service Attempts "Missile Mail" for First and Last Time"
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During the mid-1950s, "amateur" rocketeers flew a number of zinc dust / sulfur "
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that postal delivery by rocket was viable. After initial demonstrations on the
125:, discussed the legalities of transatlantic rocket mail with a German reporter.
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was the first to suggest using rockets to deliver mail. While editor of the
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One of the mail containers which was on board the
Regulus missile fired by
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241: in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
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783:"Unique mail delivery method remembered on rocket plane anniversary"
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Gerhard Zucker's Scottish rocket mail was depicted in the 2004 film
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One of the first successful deliveries of mail by a rocket in the
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560:(1973). The character Pirate Prentice receives orders this way.
177:. Around 1.07 m long with a diameter of 18 cm, the rocket
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fame, think that rocket mail, or at least ultra-elite business
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The USPS had officially established a branch post office on
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813:. Armed Forces Communications Association. 1959. p. 34
757:" at Encyclopedia Astronautica. Accessed 4 September 2005.
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724:. The British Postal Museum & Archive. Archived from
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experimented in the 1930s with powder rockets similar to
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assisted the Post Office Department, predecessor to the
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arrive for at least a week after mailing, by the 1950s
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for the number-one spot among free webmail services.
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acquired RocketMail in 1997, and assimilated it into
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services. For a brief time, RocketMail battled with
19:
For the webmail service that became Yahoo! Mail, see
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crossed the Atlantic Ocean in as little as one day.
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and delivered some 3000 pieces of mail to it before
550:Mail is delivered by rocket in an early chapter of
537:A surplus mail rocket is used to reach the Moon in
499:
Entering Space: Creating a Spacefaring Civilization
870:
709:Essays on the History of Rocketry and Astronautics
873:The air up there: more great quotations on flight
711:, NASA Converance Publication 2014, Vol.II, p 109
532:
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566:was the name for one of the first major, free
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115:Deutsche Gesellschaft fĂĽr Luft- und Raumfahrt
771:. Dunblane: privately published. p. 84.
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970:Ellington, Jesse T. and Perry F. Zwisler,
612:The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
609:mentions missile mail in his 2006 memoir
301:Learn how and when to remove this message
39:was used for one attempt to deliver mail.
967:, 1943, Imperial Stamp Co Ltd, Allahabad
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332:at the nearest destination post office.
27:
938:. Aero-News Network. 13 November 2005.
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916:from the original on 26 September 2011
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655:from the original on 26 November 2020
877:. McGraw-Hill Professional. p.
450:United States Submarine Force Museum
239:adding citations to reliable sources
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109:, but the missiles were unreliable.
16:Mail delivery by rockets or missiles
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524:, both in Kern County. Test pilot
379:first day commemorative cover. The
123:United States ambassador to Germany
13:
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645:"The Rise and Fall of Rocket Mail"
14:
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912:. Finding Dulcinea. 8 June 2010.
869:English, Dave (24 January 2003).
789:from the original on 30 July 2013
651:. Postal Times. 4 February 2019.
403:. The mail consisted entirely of
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986:Rocket Mail flights of the World
942:from the original on 6 July 2007
420:United States Postmaster General
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845:from the original on 9 May 2009
226:needs additional citations for
153:, Zucker tried to convince the
859:, United States Postal Service
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533:Occurrences in popular culture
409:President of the United States
1:
972:Rocket Mail Catalog 1904-1967
746:Wade, Mark. (28 March 2005) "
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105:were used to deliver mail in
769:Scottish Air Mails 1919-1979
448:is in the collection of the
350:United States Postal Service
7:
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522:California City, California
429:, for sorting and routing.
405:commemorative postal covers
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681:Ley, Willy (August 1954).
193:Oriental Fireworks Company
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1238:American Air Mail Society
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491:Rocketplane Limited, Inc.
460:Reusable launch vehicles
936:"EZ-Rocket Flies Again"
767:Beith, Richard (1981).
181:were packed with 1,200
683:"For Your Information"
416:Universal Postal Union
388:
358:Regulus cruise missile
40:
1298:Humber-Sommer biplane
965:Rocket Mail Catalogue
753:5 August 2014 at the
591:Mission: Impossible 2
486:single-stage to orbit
472:. Technologists like
427:Jacksonville, Florida
423:Arthur E. Summerfield
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366:solid-rocket boosters
362:Naval Station Mayport
87:Berliner Abendblätter
31:
1007:at Wikimedia Commons
979:Rocket and Jet Posts
504:On 3 December 2005,
235:improve this article
119:Jacob Gould Schurman
32:The rocket-launched
1081:Curtis "Jenny" JN-4
728:on 11 December 2005
544:Rocket Ship Galileo
454:Groton, Connecticut
155:General Post Office
91:artillery batteries
83:Heinrich von Kleist
46:is the delivery of
1176:First flight cover
1088:Specific countries
977:Field, Francis J,
810:Signals, volume 13
518:Mojave, California
512:(a rocket-powered
418:, and so on, from
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385:Postmaster General
129:Friedrich Schmiedl
61:The collection of
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1126:Air Mail Facility
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1056:Airmail etiquette
1003:Media related to
888:978-0-07-141036-6
553:Gravity's Rainbow
412:Dwight Eisenhower
401:Norfolk, Virginia
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464:Rocket expert
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143:Gerhard Zucker
111:Hermann Oberth
81:German author
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252: –
251:
250:"Rocket mail"
247:
246:Find sources:
240:
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224:This section
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207:United States
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189:Stephen Smith
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1288:Douglas DC-4
1283:Curtiss JN-4
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1202:Balloon mail
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981:, 1965, 40pp
978:
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944:. Retrieved
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726:the original
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689:. p. 44
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649:Postal Times
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335:In 1959 the
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233:Please help
228:verification
225:
197:event covers
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159:Sussex Downs
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137:St. Radegund
127:
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1278:Boeing P-12
1256:Conveyances
1217:Rocket mail
1212:Pigeon post
1171:Crash cover
1005:Rocket mail
659:18 November
607:Bill Bryson
580:Yahoo! Mail
165:islands of
44:Rocket mail
1326:Categories
1268:Blériot XI
1263:Airco DH.4
1207:Mail plane
693:2 December
631:References
586:Ethan Hunt
564:RocketMail
526:Dick Rutan
326:micrograin
261:newspapers
63:philatelic
21:RocketMail
1153:Philately
510:EZ-Rocket
508:flew its
466:Willy Ley
340:submarine
337:U.S. Navy
291:June 2017
183:envelopes
179:fuselages
163:Hebridean
147:fireworks
69:known as
1347:Rocketry
1197:Aerogram
940:Archived
914:Archived
840:Archived
787:Archived
751:Archived
722:"Rocket"
653:Archived
619:See also
547:(1947).
470:reusable
439:air mail
356:fired a
175:Scotland
77:Pioneers
1332:Airmail
1311:more...
1303:LZ 127
1190:Methods
1115:Ireland
1105:Denmark
1099:Germany
1049:General
1042:Airmail
988:, 1986.
793:17 July
572:Hotmail
568:webmail
514:Long-EZ
446:Barbero
397:Barbero
393:Barbero
383:is the
377:Barbero
354:Barbero
345:Barbero
330:franked
275:scholar
133:Schöckl
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520:, to
476:, of
399:left
282:JSTOR
268:books
171:Scarp
107:Tonga
1066:Mail
948:2011
922:2011
896:2011
883:ISBN
851:2010
819:2011
795:2013
734:2023
695:2013
661:2020
375:USS
343:USS
254:news
169:and
135:and
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