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Southwest Airlines Community

Out With The Old, In With The New

gguillory
Adventurer C
When I was hired at Southwest Airlines in May 1997, we had just finished construction on a new hangar in Dallas to house the latest and greatest "Next Generation" Boeing 737, the dash 700. The -700 aircraft was much larger than the -200, -300, or -500 aircraft that we had in our fleet at the time. It had a wider wing span and a taller landing gear that makes its tail sit higher in the air, so we needed to build a hangar that it would fit into. We have since retired all -200 aircraft and only have -300, -500 and -700 aircraft.  As our fleet has grown, we have purchased only -700 aircraft, so we needed larger hangars that would accommodate them. On July 15, 2002, we opened another hangar in Dallas that would house  more -700 aircraft. In November of last year, hanagar-backlit.JPGwe began construction here on another new hangar.  The plans for the new hangar called for the removal of the two original hangars that could only house the -300 and -500 aircraft, and they were razed a couple of months earlier in September 2006.  Although we all enjoyed hearing that we were going to build another new hangar, it was sad to know that some of our veteran Mechanics had to say good-by to these original hangars at our Love Field Maintenance Base.                                                                                   original-hangars.jpg                                                       After 14 months of construction we now have a new hangar that houses three -700 aircraft and of course easily houses the -300 and -500 aircraft.  I've got to go now... I have to move my tool box into the new Hangar.hangar-far.JPG
7 Comments
Shannon_Russell
Explorer C
Enjoy your new home!! Hope all is well. Happy Holiday "G". Luv, Shannon
Ellee
Explorer C
Hi, I found your site via PR Voices where I am listed a couple below you on their latest ranking: http://www.prvoices.com/community I thought you might like to writet a comment on my recent post about free airline upgrades, what is your view on this? http://elleeseymour.com/2007/12/04/how-do-you-get-a-free-airline-upgrade/
blusk
Aviator C
Thanks for the invite, Ellee, but since Southwest only has one cabin on our flights, you can't upgrade to another cabin. Brian
pthompson
Explorer A
I'm not a mechanic, but I think we only demolished one hangar to make way for the newest one. One of the original hangars still remains.
blusk
Aviator C
Paul, If you will look at the middle picture, it shows the two hangars that were torn down. You can clearly see that there are two hangars here. There is a larger, older hangar still to the left of these. Until the new hangar along Shorecrest was completed, this was the only hangar of the three that could house a -700. Brian
Anonymous4395
Explorer B
Thats cool
Tamra
Explorer A
I remember my very first day here at SWA. My first day, I parked in the parking lot that was located in front of the building that I worked at the time. (A/C MX Records.) At the end of my first day, I was told that I would no longer be able to park there because they were demolishing that parking lot to build a new hangar. I laugh now because I can now say "remember when" regarding our "old building". And now that I work inside the hangar....our new hangar is no longer "THE NEW" hangar. It's the old hangar...but not the oldest. Sound a little confusing huh? Try keeping up with all of the birds (A/C) in these new bays. I'm still trying to figure out which letter became what number! hehehe.