Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-300

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The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body airliner produced by Boeing at its Renton factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retained the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating but with two underwing Pratt & Whitney JT8D low-bypass turbofan engines. Envisioned in 1964, the initial 737-100 made its first flight in April 1967 and entered service in February 1968 with Lufthansa. The lengthened 737-200 entered service in April 1968, and evolved through four generations, offering several variants for 85 to 215 passengers.

Development began in 1979 for the 737’s first major revision, which was originally introduced as the ‘new generation’ of the 737. Boeing wanted to increase capacity and range, incorporating improvements to upgrade the aircraft to modern specifications, while also retaining commonality with previous 737 variants. In 1980, preliminary aircraft specifications of the variant, dubbed 737-300 were released. This first major upgrade series was later renamed 737 Classic.

Southwest Airlines, based in Dallas, Texas, began operations in 1971 as an intra-state air carrier flying solely within the state of Texas using 122-seat Boeing 737-200 jets. After the airline deregulation act was passed in 1978, Southwest was allowed to venture beyond the borders of Texas and began service to Albuquerque on April 3, 1980 with four daily flights to the Love Field Airport in Dallas. Southwest quickly expanded adding new flights to El Paso, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Denver and within three years had become the largest carrier at the Albuquerque Sunport.

Southwest Airlines was the first of the five airlines using 737s for service to Albuquerque to shift to the larger, quieter, and more fuel efficient 300 series. Because its inaugural flight occurred on the anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first flight, the Boeing 737-300 N300SW aircraft was christened “The Spirit of Kitty Hawk” on January 6, 1985.

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