Skip to main content

Southwest Airlines Community

Lego My Airplane

gguillory
Adventurer C
lego131.jpgWhile I was surfing the net I came across something from my past, a toy... a very sophisticated toy called the Lego Mindstorms NXT. This toy was not something I had as a kid, what I meant by "in my past" is that, back in August 2006, I was visiting my dear friend. Our very own "Blog Queen" Paula Berg in our Public Relations Department asked if I thought our Mechanics would like to take on the project of building something using Lego's latest invention, the Mindstorms NXT?Lego had sent the Mindstorms NXT kit to different companies, asking them to use it to built something that would represent their company's brand--companies like Southwest Airlines, AOL, GAP, Energizer, Microsoft, Reebok, and others. I brought the idea to our Maintenance Leaders, and they gave us the okay to build this project during our normal working hours. We decided to build a 737-700; what else is there that represents our Company's brand better than our aircraft? We were given two Lego Mindstorms NXT kits and within six to eight hours we had our creation.                                                           lego51.jpg    lego21.jpg   lego12.jpg The Lego kit had to be programmed to function like an airplane, so we programmed it to back up as if it were backing out of the gate and had a simulated engine start as well as rudder movement.  Then we had it move forward as if were taxiing. We loaned our SWA robot back to the LEGO Company to be used in their publicity efforts. lego-airplane6.jpg   lego-airplane5.jpg   lego111.jpg The Mechanics who put their minds together for this project did an excellent job, and they ask me from time to time, what ever happen to our Lego 737-700? So if anyone out there has seen it, let me know; we would love to get it back and display it at our Maintenance facility.  
8 Comments