The Hoover Windtunnel upright series first deployed around 1998 I believe was the actual year. The first generation of these vacuums was manual usage only and there were about 4 models. Hoover actually ran a 30 minute paid infomercial for these units. They had a demo on there showing the vacs picking up fine goldish colored sand versus other vacuums.
There was a 13" cleaning path base model and then a few other models including the Plus, Supreme and Deluxe. The Supreme and Deluxe were very similar as both had Dirt Sensors and were 15" cleaning paths. I think that the Deluxe had more accessories though. All of the original models were deep wine burgundy in color.
The success of how well these vacuums went is what sparked the introduction of Self Propelled series and Windtunnel canisters. The Windtunnel upright was on the market a couple of years before canisters and the Self Propelled models were introduced. It also took a couple of years before the air powered turbine tool was introduced. Hoover did not have an air powered turbine tool at the time when the first Windtunnel uprights hit the market. These machines were a very big step for Hoover as Hoover had not had a bypass style upright since the DialAMatic. Meanwhile, Eureka had the Victory series, Kenmore had clean air vacs for years, it was Hoover's turn to catch up with competition.
The Hoover Windtunnel canister was a really huge introduction for the market. There were two models, in the standard Hoover line up. The green S3630 Windtunnel canister was the base model and the black S3655 was the Ultra model which had several more features including an entire separate set of wands with combo floor tool. So the power head had a set of chrome wands and a combo floor tool had plastic wands, plus there was a standard bare floor brush still packed on board with the other 3 covered onboard tools. Many department stores only carried upright vacuums at the time and had never had a power head canister on their shelves. That changed with the green Hoover Windtunnel canister. Best Buy, Kohls, Kmart, Bradlees and many many more stores had the green S3630 on the shelves.
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(State College, PA) 
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