Mmmmm. DC9s.....
Brings back memories of the days of parallel scheduling and the great Australian air race where we would taxy off blocks with the front stairs still retracting so as to get pole position for take off.
Remember the attempts on the world speed record from Sydney to Canberra?
If conditions were right you could get an intersection departure off rwy 16 next to the terminals then flat-chat out through the heads and down to Canberra for a straight in on rwy 17. I seem to remember having a personal best of 18 minutes flight time and 22 minutes block-to-block. None of this wimpy 250 knots below 10000' in those days!
It was the best handling pilot's aeroplane I ever had the pleasure of flying.