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On This Day: US Postal Service Attempts “Missile Mail” for First and Last Time
June 08, 2009 06:00 AM
by
findingDulcinea Staff
On June 8, 1959, a U.S. Navy submarine, the USS Barbero, launched 3,000 letters via missile from Virginia to Florida.
“Missile Mail” Turns Out Largely to Be Just for Show
The United States Postal Service combined with the Department of Defense to deliver the mail in a revolutionary fashion. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was in full support of the experiment, and one of the letters to be transported was from him.
The unarmed missile and its postal payload arrived safely at the U.S. Naval Station in Mayport, Fla.
Postmaster General Arthur E. Summerfield, who witnessed the event, considered missile mail the future. He told The New York Times, “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.”
Aviation.com provides a newsreel clip from 1959 explaining the historic event. The narrator quotes one person observing the missile launch: “practical and economic for the future? Very likely.”
And in January 1957, about two-and-a-half years before the missile mail launch, an article appeared in Mechanix Illustrated magazine claiming to reveal the future of the U.S. mail: “Mail Via Rocket.” The article, replete with illustrations, writes: “When will this closely-coordinated missile mail service be in operation? According to Hall L. Hibbard, head of Lockheed Aircraft’s Missile Division “missile mail and freight will be possible by 1965. MI agrees,” writes the magazine.
History has proven them wrong, however, at least for the time being. At the time of the launch, the Department of Defense saw the measure more as a demonstration of U.S. missile capabilities during the Cold War. Also, the costs of using missile mail would not have justified the benefits. More recently, the use of e-mail technology has made it that much more unnecessary.
The unarmed missile and its postal payload arrived safely at the U.S. Naval Station in Mayport, Fla.
Postmaster General Arthur E. Summerfield, who witnessed the event, considered missile mail the future. He told The New York Times, “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.”
Aviation.com provides a newsreel clip from 1959 explaining the historic event. The narrator quotes one person observing the missile launch: “practical and economic for the future? Very likely.”
And in January 1957, about two-and-a-half years before the missile mail launch, an article appeared in Mechanix Illustrated magazine claiming to reveal the future of the U.S. mail: “Mail Via Rocket.” The article, replete with illustrations, writes: “When will this closely-coordinated missile mail service be in operation? According to Hall L. Hibbard, head of Lockheed Aircraft’s Missile Division “missile mail and freight will be possible by 1965. MI agrees,” writes the magazine.
History has proven them wrong, however, at least for the time being. At the time of the launch, the Department of Defense saw the measure more as a demonstration of U.S. missile capabilities during the Cold War. Also, the costs of using missile mail would not have justified the benefits. More recently, the use of e-mail technology has made it that much more unnecessary.
Background: The history of rocket and missile mail
Although missile mail was a U.S. innovation, it was preceded by a 1931 Austrian version known as rocket mail, with which engineer Friedrich Schmiedl successfully fired 100 pieces of mail from one Austrian village to another.
German businessman Gerhard Zucker also tried to popularize rocket mail in the 1930s, although he had his share of failures. In one case, he tried to launch a rocket between two Scottish Islands but an unfortunate explosion destroyed the 1,200 traveling envelopes. British officials then proceeded to deport Zucker back to Germany for “mail fraud.”
German businessman Gerhard Zucker also tried to popularize rocket mail in the 1930s, although he had his share of failures. In one case, he tried to launch a rocket between two Scottish Islands but an unfortunate explosion destroyed the 1,200 traveling envelopes. British officials then proceeded to deport Zucker back to Germany for “mail fraud.”
Related Topic: Missiles with nothing to do
America’s stock of intercontinental ballistic missiles has shrunk substantially since the heyday of the Cold War, as the U.S. no longer has to counter the Soviet threat. The question becomes what to do with the 500 remaining missiles and the large 9,000-man team that maintains them. “It’s too late to revive Missile Mail. Now, after all, we have the Internet. And so we have the non-nuclear ICBM,” writes Fred Kaplan of Slate.
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