Airbus or Boeing?

[Boss_BlueAngels]

I cheat...  just carry a big lens and wait for them to get close.  Most airplanes have their make/model painted right on the side!  

No, on a serious note, one really easy way to tell the difference between a 777 and a 767 is the 777 has a "knife edge" tail.  It comes to a sharp, square point with the APU exhaust out to the side.  The 767's tail is rounded.  Also, while the landing gear is down, the 777 is even easier to identify.  It's the only airliner with a 6 tire main landing gear unit.  

[Tweek]

Wouldn't it be so much easier if we were back in the days of BAC 1-11s, Tridents and Boeing 707s! The only similar feature between airliners would be the amount of smoke being chucked out the back of the engines!

[spitfire boy]

Wouldn't it be so much easier if we were back in the days of BAC 1-11s, Tridents and Boeing 707s! The only similar feature between airliners would be the amount of smoke being chucked out the back of the engines!

At least in the modern era you're actually able to see the aircraft... as opposed to the days of the 707 and so on... smoke has it's downsides you know... like it's opacity... makes it awfully hard to see the aircraft that's chucking the smoke out in the first place...

Smoke can obscure many things, you know...

[Tweek]

Wouldn't it be so much easier if we were back in the days of BAC 1-11s, Tridents and Boeing 707s! The only similar feature between airliners would be the amount of smoke being chucked out the back of the engines!

At least in the modern era you're actually able to see the aircraft... as opposed to the days of the 707 and so on... smoke has it's downsides you know... like it's opacity... makes it awfully hard to see the aircraft that's chucking the smoke out in the first place...

Surely that would make it EASIER to see, especially over long distances!

Why do you think display teams use smoke?

[Felix/FFDS]

Wouldn't it be so much easier if we were back in the days of BAC 1-11s, Tridents and Boeing 707s! The only similar feature between airliners would be the amount of smoke being chucked out the back of the engines!

At least in the modern era you're actually able to see the aircraft... as opposed to the days of the 707 and so on... smoke has it's downsides you know... like it's opacity... makes it awfully hard to see the aircraft that's chucking the smoke out in the first place...

Surely that would make it EASIER to see, especially over long distances!

Why do you think display teams use smoke?

Smoke - so you can see the points ....  but if there's too much smoke, you can't see the fine details as they pass you by!

[spitfire boy]

Wouldn't it be so much easier if we were back in the days of BAC 1-11s, Tridents and Boeing 707s! The only similar feature between airliners would be the amount of smoke being chucked out the back of the engines!

At least in the modern era you're actually able to see the aircraft... as opposed to the days of the 707 and so on... smoke has it's downsides you know... like it's opacity... makes it awfully hard to see the aircraft that's chucking the smoke out in the first place...

Surely that would make it EASIER to see, especially over long distances!

Why do you think display teams use smoke?

I meant that the smoke would shroud the aircraft... all you'd see is what appeared to be a large cloud making an approach to an international airport...

Fred; "Oi Bert!!"
Bert; "What?"
Fred; "I didn't know cumulonimbus flew traffic patterns..."

[chornedsnorkack]

I cheat...  just carry a big lens and wait for them to get close.  Most airplanes have their make/model painted right on the side!  

No, on a serious note, one really easy way to tell the difference between a 777 and a 767 is the 777 has a "knife edge" tail.  It comes to a sharp, square point with the APU exhaust out to the side.  The 767's tail is rounded.  Also, while the landing gear is down, the 777 is even easier to identify.  It's the only airliner with a 6 tire main landing gear unit.  

The only big twin with 6 wheel MLG, that is.

This leaves:
telling apart the big twins - 767 from A300, A310 and A310

and telling apart Tu-154 from the other trijets - 727, Trident and Yak-42.

[Vapour01]

The question should be, single or double decker buses, pretty much all that modern airliners are seperated by for me.