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Rocket Mail: The First International Rocket Mail Service in the United States, a Set of Four Flown and Signed Covers, 1936.
Description
Rocket Mail: The First International Rocket Mail Service in the United States, a Set of Four Flown and Signed Covers, 1936. A rare and complete grouping of four original souvenir covers carried on the First International Rocket Flight between McAllen, Texas and Reynosa, Mexico, July 2-3, 1936. This pioneering event, organized by Keith E. Rumbel, marked one of the earliest experiments in rocket mail, with covers dispatched across the Rio Grande and back. Wear from age, fine.Two Outbound Covers (U.S. to Mexico): Each franked with Mexican airmail adhesives tied by Reynosa circular date stamps, July 3, 1936, in addition to the experimental red "Rocket Mail" vignette and cachets. One bears 40c blue airmail, the other a combination of 20c commemorative and 25c airmail stamps.
Two Return Covers (Mexico to U.S.): Both addressed to Loyal Service Post No. 37, American Legion, McAllen, Texas, each franked with U.S. 16c Airmail Special Delivery stamps tied by McAllen, Texas machine cancels, July 2, 1936. Cachets note the "Return Trip" by rocket flight.
Signatures: All four covers are boldly signed by key participants, including Bolton Hyde (Post Commander), A. Harlan Adair (Post Historian), and Keith E. Rumbel (Rocket Experimenter and Flight Chairman), among others.
Keith Rumbel was a teenage prodigy from Texas who organized and launched the first international rocket mail experiment in 1936, sending mail by rocket between McAllen, Texas, and Reynosa, Mexico; these flights, supported by his local American Legion post and using stamps he designed, combined his passions for stamp collecting and rocketry, made headlines in philatelic circles, and marked a unique achievement in early U.S. rocket and postal history, after which Rumbel pursued studies at Rice and MIT, ultimately he went on to become a rocket scientist, contributing to U.S. Navy missile design, including work on the Terrier missile.
A fascinating group from the dawn of experimental rocket mail and an unusual international rocket post flight-an area of space and philatelic history that bridges aviation, rocketry, and postal ephemera. From the Family Collection of Jacques Bracke
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(Lots 50001-50227) - 10:00 AM Central Time, Thursday, December 11, 2025.
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