The intent of this particular flight was to land at a 12fps descent rate, a very hard landing rate for a commercial airliner.
The pilot in command on this flight messed up a bit, and brought it down at a 17fps rate - basically a carrier landing descent rate.
This is almost 3 times the 'normal' landing descent rate of 6fps used by most airlines.
This film-clip is really a testament to the quality of the MDC product.
I'm certain that most airliners would have snapped in half at mid-fuselage at this abusive descent rate.
For only what you see in this film-clip to happen is really amazing....
This plane (Fus. No. 909) was actually rebuilt, and was the primary test aircraft throughout the 80's and early 90's for MDC.
It was a legendary workhorse in the MDC Flight Test stable for many years.
To all you fellow MDC F/T folks,
This film-clip finally made it to digital!
A memory of one of our all-time favorite aircraft....