Blog Alumni

blusk
Author Since 2006

Brian Lusk

Of all our bloggers, I am probably the oldest, but I don’t feel my age. I was born in 1952, just a couple of blocks from the Santa Fe Railway’s main transcontinental line in Clovis, New Mexico to an airline father, so transportation (planes and trains) got in my blood at an early age. As a child, my fondest memories are spending days at work with my dad on the ramp in Amarillo, Texas and on the old observation deck at Dallas Love Field. After graduating from Southern Methodist University in Dallas as a journalism major, I got my first airline job with Delta in 1976. During my time at Delta, I worked at Dallas/Fort Worth (during three separate occasions), Detroit, Oakland, Atlanta (at the old terminal), Portland, Oregon, Paris Orly, and Dayton, Ohio. My 18½ years with Delta were split between ramp/operations and ticket counter/gates. I joined Southwest (thankfully!) in 1995, as a Reservations Sales Agent, but then I moved to the communications group in the Executive Office, where. I corresponded with our Customers on a wide variety of topics, but I also got to work on different projects like this blog. About five years ago I moved into the Communication & Strategic Outreach Department and worked primarily in our social media area. Then in 2011, I got my dream job as Southwest's Corporate Historian. I enjoy sharing and preserving Southwest's past with our Employees and the public at large.

Fun Facts

Languages

English and Blog

Hobbies

Aviation and Railroading

Pets

My basset, Annabelle

High School

El Segundo High School, El Segundo, Ca and WT White in Dallas

College

Southern Methodist

Favorite Sports Teams

Texas Rangers, Dallas Stars, Dallas Mavs, SMU, Cowboys

Favorite Travel Destinations

Scotland

Your Favorite Southwest Story

The current week's Flashback Fridays

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Recent Activity Posts

Flashback Friday: A Look at Southwest’s First Hangar

Mar 25 2011
Flashback Friday, A Look at Southwest’s First Hangar   With airport remodeling underway in Dallas and San Antonio, much of our original airport infrastructure from our origin in 1971 has now met the wrecking ball.  Our original gates/ticket counter/operations at Houston George Bush Intercontinental may still be intact, but I can’t verify that.  However, the original temporary... read more

Flashback Fridays: Brian's Recommended Reading List

Mar 18 2011
After I published the two Flashback Fridays about the coming of the jet age (click here and here to read them), I heard from one of our Representatives at our Phoenix Center.  Wayne asked me to provide him with a reading list on this fascinating era, which even today, still has residual effects on our industry.  I thought I might take this opportunity to share that list with all of you... read more

Flashback Fridays: New Orleans and All That Jazz

Mar 11 2011
This weekend, Southwest Airlines opens our 70th and 71st cities in Greenville/Spartanburg and Charleston.  I think that’s amazing because, for our first seven years, we were prohibited from flying beyond the borders of Texas.  We were founded as a Texas intrastate airline to avoid onerous federal regulations on pricing and routes.  PSA and Air California enjoyed a similar... read more

Flashback Fridays: Extreme Change in the Airline Industry

Mar 04 2011
In last week’s Flashback Fridays, we talked about how the jet engine and the new jet airliners contributed to Southwest’s uniqueness.  This week, let’s look at the sudden and complete change they brought to the airline industry.  For those of use around the last ten years or so, the “aught” years have brought incredible, widespread, and unheard of change.  Everything from 9/11, war... read more

Flashback Fridays: A Few Words About Jet Engines

Feb 25 2011
Along with our 40th anniversary this year, we should be celebrating another almost forgotten 75th anniversary.  On January 27, 1936, Frank Whittle and three other English investors formed Power Jets, Ltd. to make and market jet aircraft engines.  Whittle was a career Royal Air Force officer who had a unique eye on the future.  He patented his design for the jet engine in 1930, and... read more

Flashback Fridays: Finally, A Look at Southwest's Early Houston Operation

Feb 18 2011
One of the things I enjoy best about creating Flashback Fridays is bringing photos to you that may have never seen the light of day.  Today’s batch comes from a big box of black and white negatives that were at our original advertising agency, the Bloom Agency.  Even more cool is that these are photos of our operation at Houston Hobby (HOU).  Previously, I have brought you some San... read more

Flashback Fridays: The World's First Revenue 737 NG Flight

Feb 11 2011
Most airline geeks know that the 737-700 was the first of Boeing’s Next Generation (NG) 737s to enter service.  The -600, -700, -800, and -900 represent major improvements in range, emissions, and carrying capacity over the Classic Generation’s -300, -400, and -500 aircraft.  In turn, the Classics were a quantum leap over the two Originals models, the 737-100 and the 737-200. ... read more

Flashback Fridays: A Tale of Two Companies

Feb 04 2011
We’re always looking for creative ways to celebrate our Anniversaries, and in the early years, those celebrations featured our Flight Attendants. Actually, back then, they were called “Hostesses.” The two pictures I have this month represent a difference of nine years. The black and white photo below was taken at the first birthday party in June 1972. Southwest had managed to survive a whole year... read more

Flashback Fridays: Five Years of Blog History

Jan 21 2011
Age five in blog age is probably like 15 years in dog age or maybe like age 40 in Southwest years.  I’ve been around Nuts About Southwest for all five of those blog years, so on the eve of the debut of our new blog platform, I thought we could flashback through the history of this blog. In late 2005, Angela Vargo, who is now in Marketing, asked me to be part of a communication group looking at... read more

Flashback Fridays: Early Southwest Print Advertisements

Jan 14 2011
In keeping with our 40th Anniversary year, let’s take a look at some of our earliest print advertisements.  As anyone who has studied or experienced Southwest Airline’s earliest days will know, our cash was short, but we were long on creativity and gumption, which really shows in some of these advertisements. Above is a small portion of one of our earliest and splashiest advertisements,... read more