"
One is intrigued how the 737-900 copes given that the 737-400 had frequent tailstrikes."
The undercarraige is a little taller which helps. We have a placard in the flight deck reminding us of the pitch attitudes that will cause a tailstrike on both takeoff and landing. We are also "encouraged" to use the HUD for take-off as it has a tailstrike limit symbol.
It gets worse, as we sometimes have to do Flap1 takeoffs, that's when you really make sure you keep the rotation rate at 3 degrees per sec!
Funnily enough we have yet to have a tailstrike
