The following article is from the archives of Albert Hanson, Secretary/Treasurer of our Society. It has been reprinted from an article that appeared in the journal of the AUSTRIA PHILATELIC SOCIETY of New York, predecessor of our present society.   Volume XIII               May-June 1961               No. 5-6 *   *   *   *   *   *   AUSTRIAN ROCKET MAIL By Fred Rafael   The conquest of the air was an exciting adventure during the first half of this century. Balloons, non-rigid and rigid air ships, air planes made distances seem to shrink every ten years or so. From the beginning, all these means of transportation were connected with mail. The early balloon pioneers used to drop cards on their flights, many of which were found and now adorn special collections. The same is true of most of the air ship flights and particularly of the Zeppelins, which with German thoroughness systematically organized the transportation of mail for special fees and stamps and con­tributed to the development of the art of the cachet.   The end of the monarchy in Austria-Hungary and the Peace of St. Germain forbidding Austria to have any aviation whatsoever, closed the glorious first chapter of Austrian aviation history highlighted by Przemysl flights, seaplane service on the Adriatic coast, and world’s first scheduled national and international airlines (Vienna-­Cracov—Lemberg-Kiev and Vienna-Budapest). The second chapter opened in 1922 and reached its culmination in 1931 to 1933 with Austrian glider flights.   But the flight in the air was not all. This was the time when people began to think and talk of conquering the universe, by using rocket propulsion of course, and some even applied rockets to the problems of transporting mail over long distances. The first man to ex­periment with rockets for mail was Ing. Friedrich Schmiedl and the first country in which these tests were made was Austria. Friedrich Schmiedl was born in May 14, 1902 in Schwertberg, Styria, Austria. He studied natural sciences at the University of Graz and technical chemistry at the Technical High School, also in Graz. He started his systematic experiments as early as 1923. In less than three years they led to the world’s first successful mail rocket flight. His vision of the future importance of guided rockets and his ingenuity in solving numerous technical and financial problems made Schmiedl the outstanding pioneer in the field of rocket mail. Before describing his experiments let us first take a look at history.   Late in 1870 the Atlantic Monthly published an article by Ewald Everett Hale entitled “The Brick Moon”, in this article Hale argued that a second moon in the sky would tremendously facilitate navigation on the seas and on land. He proposed to send up into the sky a moon made of bricks and promised to get it there by the use of rockets.   In Germany at about the same time a man by the name of Hermann Ganswindt wrote about rocket-propelled space ships with pressure-proof cabins. Furthermore, also at this same time Konstantine Eduardovitch Ziolkoveky - a deaf and desperately poor Russian - wrote an article “The Exploration of Planetary Space with Reactive Equip­ment” in which he advocated the use of liquid fuel for rockets and discussed many other important points of rocketry. He submitted the article to the “Scientific Review” whose editors apparently did not know what to do with it. So it was 1903 before his article was published. Later on, from 1911 to 1914, he published other articles on various questions concerning space travel.   In 1919 the American Robert Hutching Goddard, the “Father of Rocketry” wrote “A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes”. In this book he thoroughly investigated the mathematics of rocketry, developed the idea of step—rockets (now called multi—stage rockets), and filled it with figures, tables, and equations. It also included descriptions of rockets capable of reaching the moon. Incidentally, in 1935 his rocket reached an altitude of 7,500 feet.   In 1923 Hermann Oberth, born in Transylvania, published “The Rocket Interplanetary Space” in German language, a scientific treaty on space travel in which he described rockets with instruments as proto­types for space ships. He advocated the use of liquid fuel and claimed that it was possible to put large rockets into orbit around the earth. Oberth’s book had great influence on the further development of rockets in Europe.   In the meantime, in 1926 Goddard in the USA had succeeded in getting the first liquid fuel rocket off the ground to a height of 184 feet. However, nothing about this was published. In 1927 “The Society for Space Travel, Inc.” was founded in Germany with Hermann Oberth as president and Wil1y Ley as vice president. This society started experiments on rocket motors. At about the same time a rocket society was also founded in Austria and in 1929 its secretary Ing. Guido Baron Von Pirquet spelled out the philosophy of rocket development.   1.   Purely experimental rockets 2.   Instrument carrying rockets 3.   Larger instrument carrying rockets 4.   Largest rockets carrying instruments and mail 5.   Still larger mail rockets carrying a pilot 6.   Space ships   It is interesting to note that even at this time nobody thought of using rockets for war purposes; i.e. of developing missiles with war­heads. Only when some high Reichewehr (German Armed Forces) officers became interested, the first funds for developing missiles were allocated.   Their interest of these is explained by the provisions of the Peace of Versailles at the end of the First World War, for­bidding to Germany all aircraft and antiaircraft guns and field artillery of more than three-inch caliber. The rockets with war­heads could overcome these limitations. But this has nothing to do with Austrian rocket history.   Why Rocket Mail? The possibilities and advantages of rockets for the transportation of mail are today generally recognized, but who--before World War II--was familiar with rockets, guided missiles, or jet propulsion?   In 1928, Schmiedl began his experiments. He had already recognized that rockets were the ideal means of transporting rail over long distances because they attain extraord1nary speed at extreme altitudes where friction is almost non—existent. Thus little energy is required to traverse very long distances once the denser layers of the atmo­sphere have been penetrated. Since the descent requires fuel--it is made by parachute--rocket mail should prove very economical for longer distances.   Especially interesting is the inscription of the V—5 rocket—letter of May 14, 1930: “It is theoretically possible to send mail from Europe to America in about 40 minutes by Rockets. It is theoretically possible to reach, by means of the Rocket, any part of the surface of the earth in less than one hour. It is theoretically possible that we can leave earth, by means of the rocket: Space Flight.”   In a 1931 interview Schmiedl foresaw the use of rockets for trans­-Atlantic mail transportation, once the problems of long—range guidance were solved, and the reliability of the performance was improved. His own experimental rockets were guided by radio (as were the German “V” weapons a decade later), by optical means, and by infra-red rays. To improve performance, he preceded his rocket experiments with a study of conditions in the stratosphere by sending up a balloon with certain measuring devices. Later he put instruments into his “registry rockets”, experimented with jet propulsion and with a glider to carry fuel and payload attached to the rocket. For fuel he used first powdered and later liquid fuel. He launched rockets from a catapult in a rowboat in the middle of a lake, and constructed and used successfully “step rockets” which delivered with one flight mail to two different points.   The financing of these experiments was a major problem, as neither the Austrian government nor the postal authorities were willing to grant funds for this purpose. Schmiedl solved it by printing and selling special stamps and postal stationery, which entitled the purchaser to have it flown by a rocket and returned to him. Thus Schmiedl created a new category of private stamps and postal paper, which after years of international philatelic discussions are now generally considered rarities, highly valued by many specialists.   The first Austrian Rocket mail was proceeded by a number of tests which consisted of a study of high altitude air current by a Stratosphere Flight of an Unmanned Balloon on June 10, 1928. This balloon carried 200 numbered light weight covers which have a tri­angular stamp in orange and black with the text “3 Groschen F S 1 - 16000-18000 m — Hochflugpost.” In the center a balloon with a car in square or in triangular shape. 150 stratosphere stamps were printed in pairs, one of which shows a square, the other a mutilated gondola. 15 pairs exist with the “3“ inverted, of which no more than 6 were flown. The flown covers have a postage stamp with the cancel­lation of Graz, June 10, 1928. The same cancellation was applied to the balloon stamp also. Covers have the cachet: Geflogen mit Hohenballon—F,3. 1.   From the second type 25 stamps exist with a small rocket above the balloon. These were printed for use on special covers to be flown by small high altitude rockets which were to be started from the car of the balloon when in high altitude. The acceptance of such covers was abandoned because of the very limited possibilities for their recovery after the start. These stamps therefore exist mint only.   This stamp with the imprinted rocket might be described as the world’s first stamp prepared especially for rocket mail, but it has not been used on covers. One such high altitude rocket has been started at the June 10, 1928 high altitude balloon start. This rocket has not been recovered. The balloon was found in Hungary.   More to follow soon!