I remember the first time I jumpseated on a DC-9. At that point I was an FO on the DC-10–itself pretty ancient but relative to the -nine, it was downright modern. Anyway, I had flown some old stuff. But that -9 had me completely flumuxed. Where every other plane had pack buttons and bleed switches, the nine had handles that could have come straight out of the cab of a locomotive. They started at the gate and the FO was a blur of handles and switches and valves. I thought they were starting at the gate waiting for a tug to push is back. (Those two weren’t much into communicating–these were the days before CRM was universally loved). But no, the captain popped the brake, grabbed a handfull of reversers and shot us backwards at 10 knots. Then, when the ground guy crossed is wands, he pushed the throttles about halfway forward and we came to a very noisy stop. The whole thing was so rediculous and Miyazaki-esque that it felt fake. Nobody would intentionally design something so archaic, right? Even the 737-200, which is the same generation, seemed far more rational by comparison. But I don’t knock the nine, or its later cousins. They did the job well. And had Boeing not been allowed its current monopoly, MD probably would have continued producing variants every bit a useful and efficient as the 320 neo and 737 max.