Question for Southwest Guys

[canyonblue737]

latest i heard is glass is out for the -300/-500 but they will put in a second CDU, remove the ADF, and install GPS. some but not all will also be reskinned.

of course your mileage may vary...

 

[check6]

Even with the glass cockpits, the flight instruments are round, correct?. What exactly does reskinning entail? I've noticed some of SWA's purple jets have a few different shades of purple because of patches on the skin, is this what we're talking about?

 

[ivauir]

Even with the glass cockpits, the flight instruments are round, correct?. What exactly does reskinning entail? I've noticed some of SWA's purple jets have a few different shades of purple because of patches on the skin, is this what we're talking about?

If we were all glass I think the instrument presentation would change.

I could be VERY wrong, but I think reskinning would eliminate all of those patches and replace all of the exterior sheet metal. There seems to be ongoing discussions with Boeing WRT the -300s meeting our longevity expectations .... there will probably be rumors about this until the -300s are gone, but it is hard to imagine that glass cockpits etc will pay for itself in an aiplane already programmed to be gone by 2012 (I may be wrong about that too - but that is what I remember). If winglets were cost effective on the -300 I could see that, but how does glass benefit our bottom line?

We'll see, it is definatly going to be a money desciion, and I'd rather save our pennies for a new ride rather than pimp'en the old one.