https://peertube.dngr.us/videos/watch/b308b9c3-f63d-4326-b2b0-d6691f0f90c6 This short film, part of the "Navy News Highlights", shows some of the stunning accomplishments made by the Silent Service in the late 1950's. First, the launching of the Barbel-class USS Blueback is shown. USS Blueback was built by Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation of Pascagoula, Mississippi, and was the last non-nuclear submarine to join the fleet. The boats that would supplant Blueback and its diesel brethren are then shown. First, USS Skipjack (SSN-585), which boasted many design changes that were products of new scientific insight into submarine design: a new tear-drop hull designed for optimum performance underwater, with a mid-hull sail and diving planes designed to to keep the ship stable and allow similar function to an airplane. Second, USS George Washington (SSBN-598), the nation's first Polaris nuclear missile submarine. With this boat's launch the nation entered a new era, in which submarine-based ICBMs would form a significant part of the USA's nuclear defense. The film ends with a mention of the stop-gap system that was in place prior to the arrival of Polaris, as we see the submarine USS Barbero (SSGN-317) perform an interesting stunt. Barbero was one of the five Regulus missile firing submarines. In 1959, as this newsreel clearly shows, Barbero fired a drone version of the Regulus off the Atlantic Ocean. Twenty-two minutes later the missile, which was equipped with landing gear, arrived at Mayport NAS in Florida. Inside its warhead compartment were two official USPS mail containers containing 3,000 pieces of mail. This "missile mail" remains the first and only time that the Post Office has used this extremely fast delivery method. Incidentally, cancelled missile mail is still in circulation among stamp collectors, and is highly collectible. This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwzM8QanLS8 Mirrored from Periscope Film (https://www.youtube.com/@PeriscopeFilm) Sat, 13 Jun 2026 05:37:12 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://peertube.dngr.us https://peertube.dngr.us/lazy-static/avatars/41a6fee9-7f57-42d0-a5fc-5db4f1af2e31.png https://peertube.dngr.us/videos/watch/b308b9c3-f63d-4326-b2b0-d6691f0f90c6 All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://peertube.dngr.us/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.