Rocket mail means a whole series of experiments aimed at sending items of correspondence via rockets. An alternative means for sending mail that, due to costs and technical difficulties, never passed the experimentation phase. The technical difficulties were also compounded by reliability and safety problems linked to the use of rockets.
Nevertheless, attempts to make it functional range from the early 1900s to the 1960s, in many countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Cuba, Denmark, France, Germany, India, England, Italy, Yugoslavia, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, United States, Sweden and Switzerland.
In our country the first experiments were due to the German engineer Gehrard Zucker, who set up a demonstration in Trieste on October 31, 1934. The experiment was successful: the “Italia” rocket, launched from Monte Castiglione (a town near Trieste), it was directed towards the valley of San Servolo, at a distance of about 4 km. The mail, recovered from the rocket, was then routed to its destination using conventional delivery methods.
Also interesting are the experiments started after the war, more specifically in the 1960s, when an all-Italian rocket was created, called “Grillo”, the first steam missile in history. The interest and enthusiasm of collectors had become such that in 1962, as a “rib” of AIDA, S.E.P.R.A. (European Society of Rocket Post and Astrofilatelia), with Eng. Sandro Taragni and Dr. Luigi Polo Friz at the secretariat-treasury. Also part of the board were Messrs. Lepri, Parisi, Negrini, Schenone and Trenta.
The jump of “Grillo” (cricket)
Umberto Cavallaro Although eminent Italian scientists such as Gen. Crocco and Riccardo Corelli had done in-depth studies on innovative fuels since the mid-thirties, interest in Italy never went beyond combustion chamber tests and no rocket was produced in our country in those years. Until the end of the 1950s, Italy had essentially been watching. All…