Jan Philips wrote in message . ..
On 9 Sep 2003 07:22:01 -0700, (ed kyle) wrote:

I sort of saw a Titan launch once.

How does a Titan IV haunch compare to the shuttle, as far as impact?
(sound, brightness, etc.)

I can only comment on the Titan 34D version, which had less
powerful SRBs than Titan IV. Titan 34D was impressive, but
not nearly impressive as a shuttle launch. Shuttle weighed
2.8 times as much (2,030 tons vs. 724 tons) and produced 2.3
times as much liftoff thrust (2,626 tons vs. 1,150 tons) as
Titan 34D. So, not only did shuttle make more noise, but it
rose more slowly so that it made more noise for a longer
period of time. I got to see a shuttle launch once from a
spot that was a few hundred yards closer to Pad A than the
press site. The ground rolled beneath my feet, *then* the
sound hit - and I mean hit. I could not just hear the sound,
I could feel it - feel the air pressure waves beating on
my face and on my hair and on my eardrums. As shuttle rose,
the sound grew in intensity until it got to be a bit scary -
a thunderous staccato ripping rumble ROAR that was already
too loud kept getting louder and louder while the ground
kept moving enough to almost knock me down.

I'll never forget that feeling - knowing I was witnessing
the marshalling of raw massive power on a scale surpassed
only a few times before in all human history.

- Ed Kyle