History is history...it's neither good nor bad... (or is the expression, "It's both good and bad." ...🙂...?). Anyway, two recent posts by a member here sent my thoughts nostalgically to the single most influential single-aisle (narrowbody) transport a/c that shaped the history of domestic travel worldwide, the 737, along with a most enduring story lasting nearly 60 years to today and still going strong, and at the same time, a most turbulent story indeed (in recent years) ...

After seeing the recent 737-200 posts and images, I thought I too could revive the 737-200 from my earlier SIMs...maybe just for one flight. So, I went down to my basement looking for that old desktop PC, with all those a/c that were my perennial favorites...the likes of 727, 737-100/200, 744, 757, 767, 707, DC-9, JS-41, Q400, DC-10, DC-8, L-1011 and so on. It's a pity (and a loss to some of us aviation enthusiasts looking beyond the NEO and NG...🙂...) when such classics are left behind in our virtual world...for one or more reasons. Anyway, I failed to go back. To illuminate my surroundings in the basement, as I pulled the light string above my head, I spotted a spider scuttle away on top my old FSX PC...🙂...totally unaware of the classics that still resided in that PC...🙂..., classics ready to fly in my virtual world. I got the message. This old stuff is better left alone in my case...and it's time to move forward...

737 flew first in 1967 and commercially for the first time with Lufthansa back in 1968 (it was a 737-100). Built under the shadows of BAC 1-11, Douglas DC-9, SE 210 Caravelle, the 737 chose to go boldly off the beaten path in one significant aspect, the wing-mounted engines vs. the rear-engine design of its predecessors. Lufthansa had specified 100 seats, but the twinjet was so incredibly popular (flights oversubscribed and operating full) that Lufthansa soon increased the requirement to 130+. The rest of the world followed suit, and no one, except for 2-3 operators, would order the -100, all eagerly looking towards the -200/-ADV, the variant we know today as the one that really started it all for 737 series...from the original onward to classic to NG to MAX...so on...

There would be no competition for the 737 for 2 decades, and somewhere between the 737-300 and 737-400, a new entrant would appear, the A320...🙂...introduced into service in 1988, in the same year as the 737-400, exactly 20 years after Lufthansa introduced the 737-100 for the first time in Feb. 1968, and United following suit with the -200 just 2 months later in April 1968. For curiosity, it's worth noting, though there was no competition to the 737 in the first 20 years of its life, here are the (interesting) standings of the A320/B737 as of now, 40 years since: delivery (A320 = 11,600, B737 = 11,800) and orders (A320 = 18,600, B737 = 17,200) ...numbers that come uncannily close to each other...🙂... 

Anyway, that April 1968 (United) flight of the 737-200 was the first commercial service of the 737 on American soil, and the focus of my flight today. It was a short trip of 130 miles, from my hometown, Chicago, to Grand Rapids, over and across Lake Michigan (see images, my ND Route Map and VFR MAP). The Registration ID of that 737-200 was N9003U. Believe it or not, that (vintage) 737-200 has been preserved indoors, somewhere in Indiana, at an Aviation Technology Center, touted as the "only fully functioning 737 under roof in the country..."...🙂...If you wish, search for the 50 second YT video "Boeing 737-200 Landing Gear Retraction and Extension at Vincennes ATC" to see its gears retracted and extended just inches off the floor indoors, along with the hum of those (legendary) JT8D P & W (low bypass) Turbofan engines...

The United 737-200 (N9003U) wore one of the earliest United (Jet plane) colors, the so-called "Blue and white wedge" livery that had (earlier) launched United into the Jet Age. A slight revision of it that would follow was the "Friend Ship livery with four stars" (see below). Now, we don't have a 737-200 yet in MSFS, so, I have illustrated, below, this Friend Ship (wedge) livery of United Airlines, in the form of an A320 that I found in my hangar, but flying, here, to symbolize that first ever 737 flight from (KORD) Chicago to (KGRR) Grand Rapids.

On this Labor Day holiday, as I woke up today, around 6am, to catch the bright golden sun shining outside the window, with a delectable touch of Fall in the air, I felt like starting my (historic) flight from Chicago also around 6am, and then heading east towards Grand Rapids, facing directly the rising sun...🙂... (see my images) ...while musing about that first ever 737 flight lifting off my hometown on that momentous day of April 28, 1968...57 years ago...

Thanks for viewing...! Hope you enjoy. 

And here's to that (legendary) 737-200 (N9003U) of United Airlines....🙂...to be seen in the MSFS skies...hopefully soon...!

Edited September 2, 20241 yr by P_7878

Very nice set P_7878 and now you have a 🙂 good looking UA livery...

Very nice set and i like this United Friend Ship livery..

cheers 😉

Great shots! 😉 

Edited September 3, 20241 yr by Alaska738

Andreas, pmplayer, Will, and ikbenik:

Appreciated the comments and responses...! Cheers...!