I challenge you: "Rocket Mail"

"Before man reaches the moon your mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to England, to India or to Australia by guided missiles.... We stand on the threshold of rocket mail."

- Arthur Summerfield, US Postmaster General 1953 - 1961

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Historians. Make it so. And make it practical and widespread!
 
The best candidate for Rocket-Mail would be a rocket plane. It would have to be mostly reusable, but it would still be a premium (used primarily for things that need to be on the other side of the world within 24 hours) service. Now, from an engineering perspective, how can this be done?

Launching your rocket plane from an airliner. Just have the United States Air Force develop the X-15 (or X-20) rocket planes to their full potential, and make suborbital flights regular for the USAF. Then, the contractors will sell the tech off to the highest bidder (Not a Soviet bidder, though). FedEx might by a civilian X-15 for next-day mailing. Then, your GlobalEx plane goes through this process:

Packing
Loaded under a jet liner's wing
Launched in flight like an X-15
Landing on the other side of the world
 
"Was that a recipient replying or a retaliatory strike?" :)

And would mangled parcels be mutually assured destruction?
 
Rockets are feasible, but that's still a very expensive way to move something in a day.

Rockets would be used to carry very lightweight, ultra-time dependent material from very major cities. A Wall Street investor is likely to get a "Your Eyes Only" report from a petroleum geologist in Riyadh via London stating that oil prices are about to crash, Paris Hilton is going to get her new designer [somethings] four hours after they were completed in Paris, but you're not going to get a same-day letter from Aunt Edna in Florida telling you that she's decided to name her cat Napoleon.
 
Just how many things need that type of service?

Douglas names a few things, but I'd also like to add JIT prototype-type stuff and organ transplants. Currently, it does you no good at all if someone in London has compatible organs and ups and dies while you're waiting in New York--takes too long to fly the organs around. With something like this, you might see more international organ movement.
 
I tend to think '69 was too early, really...so...

The POD is Kennedy's challenge; instead of challenging to a moon race, he challenges a big manned space station, a race we win TTL, too.

A big butterly flaps past, and the next thing you see is in 1982. The X-Prize, except named something early-80ish, has just been won. That seems like about the earliest likely moment to me. And the X-Prize technology - suborbital flight, powered by a Clarkean plane/rocket plane - is, as it happens, poifect for fast intraplanetary hops - mail. The first mail flight's in '91.

TTL, we haven't quite reached the moon; talk from Indians and Chinese has brought our competitive gears grinding again, but it's still a year off.
 
I tend to think '69 was too early, really...so...

The POD is Kennedy's challenge; instead of challenging to a moon race, he challenges a big manned space station, a race we win TTL, too.

A big butterly flaps past, and the next thing you see is in 1982. The X-Prize, except named something early-80ish, has just been won. That seems like about the earliest likely moment to me. And the X-Prize technology - suborbital flight, powered by a Clarkean plane/rocket plane - is, as it happens, poifect for fast intraplanetary hops - mail. The first mail flight's in '91.

TTL, we haven't quite reached the moon; talk from Indians and Chinese has brought our competitive gears grinding again, but it's still a year off.

NO! NO! BAD TEXAN! We want the moon!!

Anyway, it's unlikely that the USA'd get the first Space Station up and running. Such a test would only be of Heavy Lift capability, which the Russians would dominate at least until 1965.
 

terence

Banned
15th January

Dear Mr Hun,
In response to your letter of the 19th December on the late delivery of your 'Rocket Mail', I must point out that, in this case, Royal Mail was only the delivery agent for the US Postal Service who were responsible for the despatch of your mail.
According to our records, your letter was loaded onto US Post Rocket "Optimism" at 0h30 GMT on 6th December 1956 and duly launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 08h00 GMT that day.
Reports from the Joderell Bank tracking station indicate that 'Optimism' re-entered the Earth's atmoshere over southern Ireland at 08h55 and the capsule containing mail 'splashed-down' in the North Sea at 09h10, just off of Skegness.
Unfortunately, the US Postal Service had not notified Royal Mail, or any other postal service, of this new despatch method and, as the 6th was a Sunday, it was not possible to arrange recovery of the mail capsule that day. Due to the defence cuts of that year the Royal Navy no longer had a presence in the North Sea, the nearest surface warship being based in Gibraltar and Royal Mail's only sea-going vessel, the ferry between the Island of Muck and the mainland was unavailable due to an industrial dispute. The capsule was, however, salvaged by the Russian fishing trawler "Murmansk" that just happened to be in the area.
When Royal Mail became aware of the arrival of the capsule, management co-operated with and engaged the assistance of a number of agencies in its recovery, including the Royal Air Force and the Air Forces and Navies of the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and West Germany. You may be aware from newspaper reports that recovery of the mail capsule was achieved with some difficulty and we must acknowledge the participation of the United States Air Force 490th Tactical Wing from RAF Lakenheath and the crew of the USN deep sea submersible Alvin who recovered the capsule from the wreckage of the "Murmansk".
A further delay in the delivery of your mail was caused both by the temporary diversion of the mail capsule to the US Navy base at Holy Loch for 'security reasons' and the State of Emergency called in both Britain and in European Nato countries subsequent to the declaration of war by the USSR.
Royal Mail was unable to undertake normal twice per day deliveries to residential addresses for some time partly as a result of further US Rocket Mail deliveries to the USSR, which were, apparently, misunderstood, but replied to.

However, I can now proudly report that a nationwide postal service has now resumed and all letters and documents posted before the nuclear holocaust and with a sufficiently low level of residual radiation will be delivered timeously. In the case of your own document, we will be happy to arrange delivery immediately upon your payment of the excess postage charge that currently amounts to three hundred trillion Eurodollars, payable only in radiation-free gold or food vouchers.

I have the honour, Sir
to remain your obedient servant.


For The Postmaster General
 
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