National Affairs: The Flight of Big Annie

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Farewell to Majesty. At 40,000 ft., her vapor trail steaming steadily behind her, Big Annie appeared once more to the watchers on the north beach.* Hoarsely they cheered, as if they had witnessed the farewell performance of some great star, till she disappeared. For this test Annie was flying only on her two outboard engines—each producing 135,000 Ibs. of thrust—and she was without her central sustaining engine. Before she crashed into the sea 500 miles away, she followed her programing perfectly, touching an altitude 100 miles above the earth at a speed of Mach 7 (comparable sea-level speed: a little more than 5,000 m.p.h.).

Over the Cocoa Beach area, the joy spread, as much among the natives and newsmen as among Convair's MacNabb and his crews. At the Starlite Motel, a sign went up in the bar: "We knew you could manage it." Drinks were on the house. Big Annie's caretakers admitted that they had Annie IV ready for test, had Annie III failed. That, after all, was only prudence in a high-stake game—even when you tried not to think of the stakes. And Big Annie had not failed them. "I never saw a more beautiful sight," said B. G. MacNabb as he sipped a Scotch-and-soda. "The only word for it was majestic."