cv990 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 2, posted (14 years 5 months 2 weeks 2 days 21 hours ago) and read 1020 times:
I'm not sure what info you need, but it has an interesting history. The concept for Southwest started in the late '60s and after a lot of wrangling SW finally got going in 1971 or 72 with a handful of routes. You may wonder what this tidbit has to do with colors, but Texas Intl. and Braniff, who basically had monopolies on certain segments of thje Lone Star State, gave SW a really hard time, and things went to court in order to get SW started. Anyhow, as part of the settlement, Braniff had to supply paint to SW. The colors SW uses -- an ochre, orange and red -- were originally the same ochre, red, and orange that BN used in its pastel schemes of the late 1960s. Over the years, SW has varied the shades, especially the ochre, but the idea is the same.
SW is aware that the scheme looks a bit dated (it's not horrid, but certainly is a relic of the 70s) but they feel it is extremely identifiable with their product, so they are reluctant to change it.
BryanG From United States of America, joined May 1999, 418 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (14 years 5 months 2 weeks 2 days 19 hours ago) and read 1021 times:
In addition to the picture above, they have an all-purple "triple crown" scheme, a "California" theme done to look like the state flag, and and all-silver themed plane with no paint save the tail. They're all probably in the archives in airliners.net.
Also, to tell a Southwest 737-700 from afar, look at the flap fairings on the trailing edge of the wing. Only on the -700 are they painted red.
There are three 737-300s painted in the Shamu theme. I have to say that the Shamu scheme is the most asinine paint job in the history of commercial aviation. It's even worse than the old WesPac schemes with the scantily-clothed women on the tails.
Todd From United States of America, joined Nov 2001, 25 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (14 years 5 months 2 weeks 2 days 18 hours ago) and read 1019 times:
Thank you cv990 that s understandable. I just finished a book about SW (Nuts) and visited their web site and many others, but no explanation about their odd colors
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