John wrote:

During the few test shots of Trident missles that I have seen, I always
thought that the angle at which the vehicle flew was remarkable; like
nothing I had ever seen, save for the occassional errant Estes rocket.
The angle seemed close to 45 degrees, although I had no way of really
knowing, almost immediately after emerging from the water and ignition.


Here's a photo of one doing that right after launch:
http://encyclopedia.quickseek.com/im...sile_image.jpg
One thing Trident has is a extensible nose aerospike that sets up a
shockwave ahead of it for drag reduction during ascent.
I wonder if that influenced the ascent trajectory?

Pat