Flying high

Southwest Airlines rolls out a new plane 25 years ago today, a Boeing 737-700 that it calls the “Nolan Ryan Express.”

Each side of the aircraft’s nose carries a large decal featuring a baseball with wings.

Each decal also carries a big, bold signature of the plane’s very first passenger – Nolan Ryan, the longtime and exceptionally hard-throwing pitcher who only a day earlier on Jan. 5, 1999 is elected to the Hall of Fame.

The Express ferries Ryan from Dallas to Austin to Houston for its christening celebrations, which includes Ryan breaking a bottle of confetti across the plane’s nose while on the tarmac in Austin.

The plane later that summer carries Ryan and his family to New York, where in July 1999 he formally is inducted into the Hall of Fame.

The original “Express” during his playing days with the Texas Rangers