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Southwest Airlines Community

Mommy, Where Do Tail Numbers Come From?

sheaser
Frequent Flyer B
As I have mentioned on this podcast, I recorded Red Belly Radio for about a year only for the Employees of Southwest Airlines before we made it public. From time to time, I will be diving back into the archives to play an interview. This episode features an interview with Bill Morton from our Maintenance department who keeps track of all the tail numbers of our aircraft.

I also talk about an event that took place at The Museum of Flight at Boeing Field in Seattle about a year ago where Boeing honored all its 7-Series family of aircraft. Each airplane—the 707 through the 777—landed at Boeing Field in sequence of airplane model numbers matching to the landing time. The photo on the right is the first time all of the models were lined up this way and is one of my all-time favorite photos. Listen to this episode for details. (Pictured L. to R.) The 777, 767, 757, 747, 737, 727, 717, and the 707.
3 Comments
joedal
Explorer A
Steve, Thanks for trying to do this. If there happens to be a spreadsheet out there with aircraft tail numbers and their date of service, would that be possible to aqcuire? I am flying again in August, twice, and I am going to keep a log of which aircraft's that I will be on. Thanks so much for doing this!

Joseph R. Meyers

Dallas, Texas

David_M
Explorer C
Joseph, Take at the spreadsheets at airlinerlist.com. Among other things, it shows the dates each aircraft was delivered, previous operators, etc.
scottnearsmf
Adventurer B
Is there a way of getting to a list of tail numbers that have winglets (I following the addition of winglets to the 300s) and the completion of the Canyon Blue repainting project (which tail numbers are still carrying the Classic color?), I saw a couple N77*SW's come in to SMF in the older paint color today. Thanks.