Rocket mail by 1965!

First it was the Mechanix Illustrated article from 1957 about slave
robot butlers and cooks in our homes by 1965:
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/...laves-by-1965/
Now comes a MI article from the same year of 1957 about rocket mail
between NYC and and San Francisco in that same exciting year of 1965:
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/...il-via-rocket/
These ain't no small rockets either; they look to be around the size of
Atlas ICBMs.
Note the "Coke-bottle" waists on them, designed to cut down supersonic
drag via the Area Rule.
A odd touch for something that one would think spends most of its time
above the atmosphere.
On arrival, VTOL convertiplanes pick up the mail pod and take it to its
destination post office.
Why send a telegram, when you could send a message this way, at far
slower speed and far higher cost?
Amazingly enough, this was a Lockheed idea.

Pat

Pat Flannery writes:

Now comes a MI article from the same year of 1957 about rocket mail
between NYC and and San Francisco in that same exciting year of 1965:
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/...il-via-rocket/
[ ... ]
Why send a telegram, when you could send a message this way, at far
slower speed and far higher cost?
Amazingly enough, this was a Lockheed idea.

Well, um, with a telegram there's really not the one-in-a-hundred
chance of the rocket exploding, destroying the entire contents and maybe
raining debris down on an unsuspecting community? Is that a good thing?

--
Joseph Nebus
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Joseph Nebus wrote:
Pat Flannery writes:

Now comes a MI article from the same year of 1957 about rocket mail
between NYC and and San Francisco in that same exciting year of 1965:
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/...il-via-rocket/
[ ... ]
Why send a telegram, when you could send a message this way, at far
slower speed and far higher cost?
Amazingly enough, this was a Lockheed idea.

Well, um, with a telegram there's really not the one-in-a-hundred
chance of the rocket exploding, destroying the entire contents and maybe
raining debris down on an unsuspecting community? Is that a good thing?

Well, cost of covering the increased risk ultimately has to
be paid for by the customer. I guess that justifies the "far
higher cost."

Makes sense to me and I'm not even an MBA.

:-)

Paul