BOEING HAS delivered the first 737 to be equipped with a Flight Dynamics Head-up Guidance System (HGS) on the production line. The 737-300 was handed over to Southwest Airlines, which has ordered 236 HGS under a $45 million contract.

Around 60 of these have already been retrofitted by Everett, Washington-based Tramco on 737-300s already in service, but this was the first factory installation using Flight Dynamics' supplemental type-certification as a basis.

A total of 35 737-300s and 63 737-700s for Southwest will be built with the HGS in place. Original manufacturing changes to accommodate the HGS were also made at Wichita, Kansas, where much of the 737 is made, before final assembly at Boeing's Renton line in Seattle.

The HGS system was certificated on the 737 by the US Federal Aviation Administration in 1994, to allow landings with runway-visual ranges down to 213m (700ft), or Category IIIa conditions. Lower minima for takeoffs, down to 90m, will also be obtained.

Source: Flight International