Southwest and flight-tracking website FlightAware are making it easier for planespotters and fans to follow the carrier’s new patriotic livery, Independence One.
Starting Tuesday and continuing through Sept. 9, FlightAware will represent the specially painted aircraft – a Boeing 737 MAX 8 – with a custom icon of 13 stars encircling a red-white-and-blue jet.
Southwest unveiled Independence One on April 27, and it entered service two days later with a flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to Philadelphia. It was designed specifically for the country’s 250th anniversary celebrations, which are now underway in Washington, D.C., and across the U.S.
Fittingly, the aircraft is registered as N1776R.
“Southwest Airlines is proud to honor this incredible milestone for America with Independence One, and since we unveiled the new livery in April, we’ve seen a lot of Heart for the design and interest in where it is flying,” Whitney Eichinger, Southwest’s senior vice president and chief communications officer, said in a news release. “We are excited to partner with FlightAware to make tracking our new livery easier, whether you are flying Southwest or plane spotting from the ground.”
Independence One features long red, white, and blue stripes down the length of its fuselage and tail assembly; 13 stars for the original colonies; circles of stars on each engine cowling, recalling the Betsy Ross flag; the date “1776” written in giant quill script; and the phrase “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” taken from the Declaration of Independence.
Independence One is one of three U.S.-themed aircraft in Southwest’s fleet, the others being “Freedom One,” which was introduced in 2021, and the more recent “Liberty One.”
