Boeing 737-100 Prototype Makes Its First Flight

• The prototype 737-130, N73700 (Boeing internal number PA-099), left Boeing Field at about 1:15 p.m. on Sunday 9 April 1967 with test pilots Brien Wygle and Lew Wallick and landed at Everett's Paine Field two and a half hours later^[1][2]
• En route the crew climbed to 15,000 feet, reached about 400 mph and was shadowed by an F-86 chase plane; Wygle radioed "We hate to quit; this airplane is a delight to fly", and Boeing president William Allen met them on the ground^[1]
• The prototype was built at Boeing's Plant 2 on the Duwamish in Seattle, although Renton became the 737's production home; it was the first Boeing airliner launched on an order from a foreign airline, Lufthansa, whose launch order for 21 aircraft came on 19 February 1965^[1][4]
• The FAA issued type certificate A16WE for the 737-100 on 15 December 1967 and Lufthansa began commercial service on 10 February 1968^[4]
• N73700 never entered revenue service: Boeing handed it to NASA Langley on 12 June 1973 as NASA 515, and it returned to Boeing Field on 21 September 2003 for display at Seattle's Museum of Flight^[2][3]

Notable features

• Length 93 ft 9 in (28.6 m) and wingspan 93 ft (28.4 m); two flight crew and up to 107 passengers (Boeing's sheet gives no class split)^[3]
• Range 1,150 statute miles (about 1,000 nmi, 1,850 km); cruising speed 580 mph (930 km/h); ceiling 35,000 ft^[3]
• Power: two 14,000-lbf Pratt & Whitney JT8D-7 turbofans^[2][3]
• Gross weight 111,000 lb (50,350 kg); unit cost in 1968 about US$3.6 million^[3][4]