Aircraft Recognition Guide

The Beechcraft Denali is to be the main competitor of the Pilatus PC-12. Both are single turboprop aircraft with the engine in the nose and a T-tail. There are even more similarities, making recognition tricky. Learn how to do that on the new page https://www.aircraftrecognitionguide.com/beech-denali.

The DeHavilland Canada Otter is quite well known, but did you know it looks rather similar to the Fairchild F-11 Husky below? See for yourself here. The main difference is that the Husky has a curved up rear fuselage, to allow rear loading. Also the wings have two struts each.

The upgraded version of the F/A-18A Hornet (top) is designated F/A-18A+ (bottom). Most differences are inside, but you can still recognise it on the outside. On top of the nose, in front of the canopy, are four blade antennas on a row.

You are quite likely to mix-up the British Aerospace 748 (top) and ATP (bottom), as the ATP was derived from the 748. The BAe748 is shorter, has a more blunt nose, fewer and oval cabin windows, different nacelles, four blade props and a forward swept trailing edge of the vertical stabiliser. So in the end, distinction is not so difficult!

The Bell AH-1 Cobra was one of the first dedicated attack helicopters. Since its development in the 1960s is has been upgraded multiple times, both the single engine versions of the US Army and the twin engine version of the US Marine Corps. You can now see on the website how to recognise all variants on https://www.aircraftrecognitionguide.com/bell-ah-1-family.

Thanks to feedback from website users a difference between the Citation Excel (top) and Citation XLS (bottom) was identified, which we presumed externally the same, both with a blunt nose. This concerns the shape of the end of the main landing gear doors. Compare for yourself!

Collecting a lot more future content at .

In the Bell 429 you can still see in the external appearance that it is a direct descendant from the Bell 206 JetRanger. Even the name, GlobalRanger, refers to that. The helicopter is characterised most by its curved fuselage contours, in particular the bottom of the fuselage, from the nose until the tail boom. Learn how to recognise it from other helicopter types on https://www.aircraftrecognitionguide.com/bell-429.

The Tupolev Tu-144 was sometimes called Concordski, and given the large resemblance with the Concorde that is not strange. The Concorde has smaller cabin windows, no retractable canards, less wheels on the main landing gear, less spacing between the engine pairs, and many more other features to distinguish it from the Tupolev. If you know that, the resemblance is more superficial.

Unfortunately, the last Avro Vulcan flew in October 2015, after the costs of keeping it airworthy became too high. It was quite a sight, one of the largest delta wing aircraft ever built, powered by four jet engines in the wing roots! This page now has its own page with a description of how to distinguish the versions of the Vulcan. See https://www.aircraftrecognitionguide.com/avro-vulcan.

The Embraer EMB121 Xingu (bottom) is similar in appearance to the T-tailed Beechcraft King Air models, especially the King Air F90 (top) because it has about the same size as the Xingu. However, cockpit and cabin windows are different and the main landing gears each have two wheels compared with one on the EMB121.

Being used for a similar role, the Sikorsky S‑76 at the bottom looks similar to the Agusta A109 (now Leonardo AW109) at the top. The tail boom of the S-76 is wider and does not have the pointed end of the A109. More­over, the tail rotor of the Sikorsky is at the top of the vertical fin. Furthermore, the main gear of the S-76 is retracted rearward in the fuselage. Given these and other differences, they can hardly be mixed up.

Dassault initially had a miss with the Falcon 5X, as the selected engine continued to have problems. Hence they abandoned the 5X and transformed it into the Falcon 6X, that is slightly longer and has different engines. The largest Falcon yet has two engines and a cruciform tail like the Falcon 2000, but different cockpit windows and horizontal stabilisers pointing up. It now has its own page: https://www.aircraftrecognitionguide.com/dassault-falcon-5x-6x.

The original Airbus A320s came with two types of engines, CFM56s or V2500s. You can distinguish them by the shape of the nacelle: the CFM56 has a separate fan exhaust, the V2500 hasn’t.

As a private venture AirLand joined forces with Textron Aviation to create a high performance, low cost jet training and light attack aircraft, the Scorpion. It has some unique feature like straight wings and double vertical fins. That makes it quite easy to recognise. See for yourself at https://www.aircraftrecognitionguide.com/textron-airland-scorpion.

Recently we added pages for the Beech T-34 Mentor and two Japanese derivatives, the side-by-side Fuji T-5 and tandem seat Fuji T-7. Especially the T-7 is very similar to the T-34C Turbo Mentor. Learn how to recognise the types here: https://www.aircraftrecognitionguide.com/beech-t-34-turbo-mentor.

Both the Airbus H175 (top) and NH Industries NH90 (bottom) have a distinct ‘body line’ along the side of the fuselage. Also, the general appearance is similar. The H175 has a typical ‘waterhead’ with its high engine/gear box assembly. The NH90 has its nose gear closer to the nose than the H175. Moreover, the NH90 has sponsons in which the main gear retracts. There are just a few characteristics to look for to keep them apart.

The Citation M2 is the latest iteration of the Cessna model 525, that started as the CitationJet. Unlike other variants of the Cessna 525 such as the Citation CJ1+ shown at the top, the Citation M2 has small, triangular winglets. So they can be easily recognised. Note that older 525s can be fitted with winglets by Tamarack, but these are much taller.

This one is for the real aircraft recognition die hards: the difference between the Shorts C-23B (top) and C-23B+ (bottom). The latter Sherpa version has a cabin window in the rear right door, the straight B model has not. Subtle difference, but clearly visible is you know!

Although the Leonardo M346 has two engines with exhausts underneath the rear fuselage and the KAI T-50 has one engine with the exhaust at the very end, the overall appearance is so similar that you might confuse them. Another clear difference is in the nose gear, that retracts rearward on the M346 and forward on the T-50.

The European attempt to break the market dominance of American manufacturers of large passenger aircraft started in the early 1970s with the Airbus A300. Later, this twin wide body airlines was complemented by a shorter version, the A310. Lessons learned from the A310 were incorporated in the second generation A300, the 600 series. One special version was the Beluga shown here. Learn how the recognise all A300 and A310 version on the new webpage https://www.aircraftrecognitionguide.com/airbus-a300-a310.

You really need to see the Bombardier Global 5000 and Global 6000 side-by-side to see the difference in fuselage length. The Global 5000 and 6000 can both have eight cabin windows before the emergency exit, but then the distance between the first cabin window and the cockpit windows is larger o the 6000. The Global 6000 shown here has nine cabin windows in a row, and a similar distance between cockpit and cabin windows.

The British heavy lift cargo aircraft, contemporary to the Douglas C-133 Cargomaster, was a design of the Short Brothers, the SC5 Belfast, in British service designated Belfast C1. Only ten Belfasts were built, all for the Royal Air Force. Some later ended up at the civil market, like this one of Heavylift Cargo Airlines. Learn all the recognition points on https://www.aircraftrecognitionguide.com/short-sc5-belfast.

These two Cessna twins, a 402 at the top and a 414 at the bottom, both have tip tanks, oval cabin windows, similar nose and tail and non geared piston engines. The only visible difference is in the cockpit side windows, as the Cessna 414 has a small triangular one in between the front and (main) side window, which the 402 hasn’t.

The AH-64 is now in its third life, in the form of the Apache Guardian variant. Learn how to distinguish this E model from the previous A and D models on the new page https://www.aircraftrecognitionguide.com/hughes-ah-64-apache.

While the Airbus A350-1000 (bottom) is longer than the A350-900 (top), there is an easier way to distinguish both: the A350-1000 has six wheels on each main landing gear leg; the A350-900 has four.

The F-15 Eagle already exists more than 50 years, but is still in production. That is, the second generation Advanced Eagle or Eagle II. Time to put all the different versions on one page! Check it out on https://www.aircraftrecognitionguide.com/mcdonnell-douglas-f-15.

The Antonov An-24 and Fokker F27 are similar in size and appearance. The Antonov can be distinguished by more and more equally sized cockpit windows, round cabin windows, a forward retracting main gear and wings with anhedral on the outer wings. The Fokkers don’t have these characteristics. Finally, the trailing edge of the vertical stabiliser is exactly vertical on the An-24 family.

The Learjet 55C and Learjet 60 are very similar in appearance. In fact, there is only one major external difference. The Learjet 60 has long thrust reverser fairings extending from the back of the nacelles. The model 55C hasn’t.

The Airbus H135 (bottom) is a significant update of the Eurocopter EC135 (top). The most obvious changes are the removal of the vertical fins at the ends of the horizontal stabilisers, and the much smaller ventral fin, under the fenestron. Additionally, the air intakes are at the side of the nacelle.