Stories From The Vaults - Missile Mail
- 13 years ago
This is a promo for a show I color graded - "Missile Mail' for the Smithsonian Channel.
What’s the strangest way to deliver mail that you can think of, how about by missile? Austria and Germany were the first countries to try sending mail by rocket. German inventor Gerhard Zucker launched his rocket mail in England in 1934. “The rocket, loaded with 4,800 letters, was launched from Scarp Island to Hushinish Point. However, instead of shooting up and over the Sound of Scarp, there was a flash, a dull explosion and a cloud of smoke. The scorched letters fell like confetti onto the beach.”
In 1958 Postmaster Summerfield crammed 3,000 letters into a Regulus 1 missile from the submarine USS Barbero. The missile flew from the sub to the Naval Auxiliary Air Station at Mayport, Florida. He believed that “Before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California by guided missiles.”
What’s the strangest way to deliver mail that you can think of, how about by missile? Austria and Germany were the first countries to try sending mail by rocket. German inventor Gerhard Zucker launched his rocket mail in England in 1934. “The rocket, loaded with 4,800 letters, was launched from Scarp Island to Hushinish Point. However, instead of shooting up and over the Sound of Scarp, there was a flash, a dull explosion and a cloud of smoke. The scorched letters fell like confetti onto the beach.”
In 1958 Postmaster Summerfield crammed 3,000 letters into a Regulus 1 missile from the submarine USS Barbero. The missile flew from the sub to the Naval Auxiliary Air Station at Mayport, Florida. He believed that “Before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California by guided missiles.”