He saw striking similarities between Texas and California, which both possessed vibrant economies and large cities spread too far apart to easily travel by bus or car. In fact, he pointed to the growing strength of Pacific Southwest Airlines, a California intrastate carrier, as further validation for his plan. The knowledge that most intrastate airlines, outside of California, were struggling mightily didn’t faze King, either. King figured the struggling venture deserved to be put out of its misery, in part because he’d thought too small by serving only small Texas towns from Uvalde to Eagle Pass. The fact that King was paying Herb Kelleher (his attorney) to liquidate his current airline-fittingly named the Wild Goose Flying Service at its inception-didn’t dampen his enthusiasm one bit. Rollin King, amateur pilot and dreamer extraordinaire, hoped to launch a new airline: a short-haul intrastate carrier built to quickly and economically shuttle Customers between three of Texas’ biggest cities: San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston. The following story first appeared on Southwest Airlines’ 50 th anniversary website, as part of the ongoing anniversary celebrations.

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