In last Friday's Flashback post, I shared a photo of Rollin King that was taken in the cockpit during a flight of Boeing’s 737 demonstrator, N737Q. I shared my post with the good folks at Boeing, and their Corporate Historian, Michael Lombardi, did some digging through their files. He found the original Boeing negative and sent this cleaned up digital version that clearly shows the registration placard. The information he sent along with the photo is quite simply amazing: “I was able to find the original negative for that photo in one of the batches from the 737s domestic tour in 1968. The photo was taken while the prototype 737 visited Dallas and San Antonio on June 17, 1968.”
The photo was taken three years and one day before our official flight and about 15 months after Air Southwest was incorporated. Although it was more of a blind date than a longterm commitment at that point, it still means that our relationship with Boeing began 43½ years ago almost at the birth of the 737 program. (The first 737-100 wasn’t delivered to Lufthansa until December 1967.) I know it may sound like a small discovery, but I find it exciting and wanted to share with you all.