Planespotting 101: How To Identify Each Major Commercial Aircraft Type

[Music] do you struggle to identify the different aircraft types some are easy but many still confuse even experienced plane spotters with a few tricks and pointers and plenty of practice identification gets easier let's point out some ways to identify today's main commercial aircraft we can't cover every possible way to id aircraft or indeed every aircraft model in the world but this video should give you a solid start on the most common types joining us for this video is aviation photographer vincenzo pache who'll share some of his work and add a few tips on what differentiates aircraft from one another i got into aviation photography back in 2005 i stopped it for a while always maintained involvement with aviation and then but i picked it up again back in 2018 and really really embraced it and really enjoyed it and it's become a passion uh it's become uh something that i really enjoy and it's an integral part of my life right now before we start looking at individual aircraft it's worth noting a few good ways to broadly differentiate between aircraft the two largest manufacturers boeing and airbus the first of these is by aircraft cockpit window design the side window panels have a quite different design for each manufacturer this applies to most aircraft types with the exception of the a350 a220 and 787 boeing aircraft have an upward slanting lower edge to the windscreen which appears as a v-shape meanwhile airbus aircraft windows have a straight or horizontal lower edge there's also a diagonal cut or notch to the upper corner of the window on many aircraft there are also differences with the nose of most aircraft this can take some getting used to but the differences become clearer with practice airbus jets tend to have a rounder more bulbous nose boeing aircraft tend to have a sharper more pointed nose and as a final generalization consider the rear of the fuselage on airbus aircraft other than the a380 and a350 the fuselage continues straight to the apu exhaust on boeing aircraft it usually tapers downwards now that some broad generalizations are out of the way let's drill down into the specifics of each aircraft we'll start with the simplest to identify four engined wide bodies there are only three four engine aircraft types in common commercial service the a380 of course is the newest and quite easy to identify with its two full-length passenger decks a straight line from the cockpit to the tail with two rows of windows should give it away if you're still unsure the a380 is the only quad jet to have tip fence style winglets likewise the 747 needs little introduction or guidance with its iconic partial second deck hump from behind its bulbous rear fuselage is also quite distinctive but then there are differences between 747 variants with multiple generations of 747s let's look at the two latest the dash 400 and the dash eight while the older dash 400 has winglets and four conventional looking engines the newer dash eight is characterized by a longer upper deck a lack of winglets and engines with chevrons the other four engine aircraft in regular commercial service is the airbus a340 if you're outside of russia and looking at a four engine wide body with only one row of windows going from the cockpit to the tail it's almost certainly the a340 with our focus on airbus and boeing jets we'll exclude the russian il-96 from this video which has higher and more vertical winglets and a more bulbous shape than the long and skinny a340 the a340 has four wheel main landing gears under each wing the additional central landing gear has two wheels on the a340 200 and 300 and four wheels on the a340 500 and 600. moving on identification gets harder with twin-engine aircraft again we'll proceed through each aircraft family separately but remember there are characteristics in either aircraft types that can help by elimination the boeing 767 and triple seven can be hard to distinguish from a distance they both have the typical features of boeing style such as their windows and tails however the 767 is much shorter in fact the most common 767 300 variant is 55 meters long compared to nearly 64 meters long for the triple 7 200. the wheel arrangement is also different for each type the 767 has a two wheel main landing gear whereas the triple seven has three wheels the 767 can sometimes but not always be differentiated by its winglets it's the only wide body aircraft to have winglets that curve up with an l shape not all 767s have these however which make it an unreliable feature for identification purely going by size it can be easy to confuse the 767 with the a330 apart from the standard boeing and airbus differences there are also key differences underneath the aircraft the a330 has a bulged center section of the fuselage between the wings the main landing gear wheels also slope to the rear when extended on the 767 they slope to the front ultimately the two most reliable ways to identify the triple seven are its main landing gear wheels and its rear exhaust it has three pairs of wheels on each gear of all twin wide bodies only the triple seven and the a350 1000 have this the triple seven's distinctive apu rear exhaust design is bladed or sawn in appearance rather than conical as seen on other twin-engine jets this is a great way to always tell the triple seven apart the 787 is an easier aircraft to identify with several distinguishing features it has a distinctive four-panel windscreen and is the only wide-body twin with serrated nacelles housing the engines the 7478 has four of these engines while the narrow body 737 max has two the 787 also has a very distinctive smooth nose design this is quite different from the 767 and triple seven almost blending seamlessly into the cockpit windows with its raked wingtips the 787 does not have winglets compared to the similar sized a350 in flight the flexible wings are easily distinguished during takeoff and landing these seem to flex upward a very unique feature one of my uh favorite shots that i've ever taken out of jfk is a banking shot which slows a heavy flex of of the 787 which is a very uh unique characteristic a very signature characteristic of the dreamliner and pretty much uh 90 of the time when a dreamliner leaves on on that uh on that departure it will always give a nice performance of a very fine wind flex and also on the dreamliner you have the serrated engines which is a clear characteristic of a boeing aircraft the swooping knows a very modern uh nose and cockpit in the window so the dreamliner has a very unique signature uh from a shot taken on that approach the older airbus cos are distinguished by their traditional airbus cockpit windows and angular winglets these winglets aren't found on any other twin-engined wide bodies although the 747 400 does have something similar telling the neo variants apart from the earlier ones is quite straightforward the a330 800 and dash 900 have a different window design with black edges sometimes referred to as raccoon style these are similar to those on the a350 the a330 neos also have different wing tips the a330 200 and dash 300 have straighter angular winglets whereas the neo models have smooth blended sharklets the a350 is another easy to identify aircraft with a couple of main distinguishing features it has a unique six piece cockpit windscreen this has side windows with curved edges and a black frame design the a350 have fairly distinctive curved winglets and like the 787 it has a smooth nose design unique amongst other airbus aircraft the thing that really makes and really tell you what what a 350 is is it it's commonly nicknamed it's called a raccoon because of its of of its cockpit windows and it smells it it gives the impression of of looking like a raccoon but also it's beautiful winglets it's really beautiful to see you know the winglet on the opposite side of the plane really show up on that banking shot moving from airbus's newest wide body to its oldest the a300 and the a310 have a flat central fuselage not bulged as on the a330 the a300 has three main doors on each side and one exit to the rear of the wing whereas the shorter a310 only has two main doors of airbus's wide body jets the a300 and a310 are the only twin-engined aircraft to have tip fence style winglets which you'll also see on the a380 of course to complicate things these winglets aren't present on all a300s or a310s [Music] if you're liking this video so far why not click subscribe and hit the like button oh and be sure to click that notification bell too moving on to twin engine narrow bodies to distinguish the 757 narrow body from the 737 or a320 family look for the following boeing style cockpit windows a distinctive dolphin nose like any nose differentiation this takes practice and a taller landing gear than the 737 or a320 it also is missing the triangular section between the tail and the fuselage seen on the boeing 737 [Music] some 757s have a tall blended winglet but not all of them which makes it an unreliable differentiator of course most narrow bodies flying today are from the boeing 737 and airbus a320 family to distinguish the two you can rely on the airbus versus boeing window differences and the more pointed nose on the 737 the 737 also adds two distinguishing features it has a triangular dorsal-like fin leading from the top of the fuselage to the tail additionally the 737s are lower to the ground with most having engines with a flattened base to distinguish different 737 variants the following will help the classic series does not have winglets the next generation series does the 737 max is easily distinguished with a combination of serrated engine housings and larger split scimitar winglets some 737 next generation models have these split scimitar winglets as well but wouldn't have the serrated engine a cells of the max family as with the boeing 737 the a320 is easily identified from the characteristic cockpit windscreens straight rather than v lower edge and notched corner and a more rounded nose it also lacks the triangular dorsal fin section seen on the 737 and again the family members a318 a319 a320 a321 and neo versions are best identified by their size the a318 and a319 have one over wing exit door and two main doors to differentiate between them the a318 has 11 windows in front of the overwing exit the a319 has 13. the a320 has two overwing exit doors finally the longest a321 co has four doors along the fuselage not over wing however the a321lr has three doors plus two smaller over-wing exit doors to identify the neo variants look at the wingtips and the engines the a320co will typically have tip fence winglets although some are retrofitted with a longer blended winglet the neo engines are larger than their co counterparts they also have extensions visible at the rear of the housing the a220 was of course developed as the bombardier ac series as such it looks quite different from other airbus narrow bodies as it's effectively being adopted into the airbus family it is easily identified by its much sleeker pointed nose and different style full screen windshield the jet is also the only narrow body of its size to have long angular winglets setting it apart from those on the 737 and a320 ultimately plane spotting can be tricky especially for beginners in the majority of situations there isn't one distinguishing feature for each aircraft that'll define it rather it's the presence of a combination of features or the absence of certain others that define an aircraft's look hopefully watching this video in combination with a few practice sessions will set you on the right path to becoming a skilled plane spotter i thank everyone for watching this video i i really enjoy being involved with the simple flying team and if you want to see more of my photography you can go one of two places one is my website jfkjets.com and my instagram handle is jfk jets official and those are my uh principal ones right now thank you there are many ways to differentiate aircraft this video shares some but there are plenty more we'd love to have you share your favorites in the comments did you know that we publish over 175 stories every single week on simpleflying.com be sure to check the link in the description for more great stories just like this thanks for watching and be sure to like and subscribe before you go

Channel: Long Haul by Simple Flying

Views: 237,394

Keywords: aviation, flying, flight, boeing, airbus, planes, aircraft, 737, 747, 757, 767, 777, 777x, a320, a321, airbus a380, a380, airports, american airlines, united airlines, delta airlines, british airways

Id: aXckzSpJyp8

Length: 15min 4sec (904 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 26 2021