USA Cover Experimental Parachute Rocket Mail 1937

Tiny cover just under 3 inches in width but label has rocket on it, special experimental parachute rocket. Good item? Scarce?

One of these covers sold on ebay recently - http://www.ebay.com/itm/ROCKET-MAIL...AOSwDuJWy8VU

Thanks thats a fair price and a good one to start at $25 and see how it goes.

There is a rocket mail catalog,(not sure of the title, E-Z Rocket Mail perhaps?).

Ellington-Zwisler Rocket Mail. 2 vol.

Yes, Ellington-Zwisler is the catalog you need to use. Most rocket mail did not really go very far - most of it was more along the lines of amateurs with model rockets that went relatively short distances followed by the guys who launched them removing the mail that was stuffed inside them and then they put into the regular mail or air mail which was how it really arrived at its destination. The rocketeers were stamp collectors who liked to make up little Cinderella adhesives and cancellation devices to mark small sized covers that could be bundled into the model rockets. Another kind of rocket that was used was the kind that "flew" in a series of well known flights in India. In that case the rockets were large (6 foot) fireworks (4th of July type) rockets with their explosives removed and covers stuffed in them in place of the explosives. In some other cases the creators of rocket mail used water rockets - something like what you can make with a large plastic soda bottle in which you put some water and then pump it up with air so that the water blasts out to make the bottle go up in the air. A stamp collector could create rocket mail today if they wanted to create some more of these kinds of covers. There were a few rocket mail covers that were more legitimately flown. A good example are the ones flown in a Regulus missile launched by the submarine USS Barbero off the shore of Mayport, Florida to the Naval Auxilliary air station located on the coast at Mayport.

Before someone get bad idea . You can't launch a rocket between town a and b. For launch a rocket over 1.5 kg and 160 N of trust you need a FAA waiver, a high power certification from Tripoli or NAR and even a rocket have to be launch vertically . It can't fly over road or house. Actually im a tripoli prefect so I'm the one in charge of high power rocket launch at our club , we name the field area66, lol

25 pounds, all fiberglass

Hahhaa! 66, you could find work in North Korea!

This flight is listed in "Rocket Mail Flights of the World to 1986", published by the American Air Mail Society in 1986.

The flight was performed by Professor L. Russo on the 31st of January 1936. "The rocket after travelling a little over a hundred yards burst and released a parachute to which a mail container holding 980 miniature covers and an American flag was attached."

"On being posted the entire mail was held up by postal officials who objected to the miniature rocket stamps and miniature black metal cachet impressed on the covers."

According to the reference, ".. the postmark on all flown items is Newark, May 12th, 2 P.M. 1936."