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Somehow I don't think that the term "rocket mail" was meant to refer
to jet-propelled postmen.
More likely people had in mind something like the illustration on the
left: the transatlantic mail rocket as envisioned by the German
Verein fur Raumschiffahrt in 1932. This marvel of
engineering with its rocket engines where the nosecone should be was
designed to fly to an altitude of 300 miles, cross the Atlantic Ocean
and then descend with its (rather small) cargo of letters and parcels
to its destination with an error factor of only fifty miles.
That means that if you're waiting for your Amazon shipment to
arrive in New York and it's too cloudy for the infrared homing beam
you've got a better than fifty-fifty chance that your copy of Sex
Kittens Go to College will land somewhere off the coast of New
Jersey rather than Idlewild Airport.
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