A Brief History
On December 3, 2005, Dick Rutan, record breaking aviator, became the first man to pilot a rocket powered airplane to deliver US Mail when he flew an XCOR Aerospace E-Z Rocket from Mojave, California to California City (both cities in the County of Kern).
Digging Deeper
Various forms of “email” have been around since the 1960’s, but when email joined forces with the Internet old fashioned paper letters became “snail mail.” Actually, the term snail mail was first used as far back as 1942 and numerous times since, usually as a derisive complaint about how long it took for mail to be delivered. References to “surface mail” as opposed to “airmail” and Second Class mail as opposed to First Class mail also generated use of the epithet, snail mail. In 1981 when email went from ARPANET delivery to Internet, the term snail mail was first used by Jim Rutt, who later became CEO of Network Solutions.
It seems postal officials have long strained under the criticism about the amount of time it takes to deliver mail, which resulted in innovations such as the Pony Express and the use of railroad trains to ship mail across country at greater speed than mere horse drawn wagons. The invention of airplanes was quickly followed by the use of that invention to speed up mail delivery, and the use of unmanned rockets and cruise missiles (mere technology demonstrators or even publicity stunts) had also taken place over the years.
In 2005 when Dick Rutan made his historic flight, the event was basically a demonstration of the re-usable rocket technology offered by XCOR. You may recognize the Rutan name from aviation achievements such as the first around the world flight without stopping or refueling in his Voyager aircraft in 1986 (co-piloted by Jeana Yeager, no relation to Chuck). This epic flight covered over 26,000 miles non-stop and took over 9 days. Dick’s brother, Burt, was the designer of the Voyager, and is famous for designing other futuristic aircraft and spacecraft. Dick Rutan is now 78 years old and Burt is 73.
Alas, it does not seem likely manned rockets will be making regular mail deliveries any time soon (ever), although perhaps we will get drones delivering US Mail at some point, perhaps not so long from now. The decrease in mail volume and thus revenue has resulted in a reduction in the work force and threats to eliminate Saturday mail delivery or perhaps even more drastic cut backs.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Is there any way snail mail can become faster and more user friendly? What are your suggestions? Do you have any recommendations for the USPS?
If you liked this article and would like to receive notification of new articles, please feel welcome to subscribe to History and Headlines by liking us on Facebook and becoming one of our patrons!
Your readership is much appreciated!
Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
XCOR AEROSPACE MOJAVE CA. XCOR AeroSpace: Providing Low Cost Access to Space. PN, 2009.
