Name that Plane

It is very rare that an ordinary person can look at a random airplane and decipher its manufacturer, number designation, and official name right on the spot. The skill of aircraft recognition takes time and patience and does not come easy for most people. However, just like being able to determine the cars you see in everyday life, naming airplanes requires similar steps that make the process much simpler. Aviation enthusiasts may still have trouble deciding the difference between a Boeing 757 and a Boeing 767, but overtime airplane nomenclature will come natural with practice.

There are various methods that anyone can use in order to narrow down what the airplane may be called. The basic ideas are to first look at the engines one the aircraft and notice where they are located and how many it has. A Boeing 717 and Boeing 727 can easily be differentiated by seeing that the 717 only has two engines on the tail, while the 727 has three. Winglets are a good way to distinguish whether the airplane is made by Boeing or Airbus, and the size of the windows and tires can also be a good indication of what type of aircraft it is. For example, the landing gear on an Airbus A340 includes a single tire that comes out of the middle part of the fuselage, which makes it very distinguishable.

The wing configuration is probably the most important aspect of identifying an airplane. High, mid, or low wing airplanes rule out many different factors of the type of aircraft, and at the same time the wing shape is just as important. Straight, swept, and delta wings are a good giveaway on the airplane. The shape of the tail is also very helpful such as conventional, forward slant, high horizontal stabilizer, t-tail, v-tail, and twin boom tails. All of these factors are easy to learn and understand with practice and eventually will help anyone identify a plethora of aircraft.