Airbus or Boeing? How to tell them apart

A twinjet with a white fuselage taxis to the runway, and the question comes up at the fence next to you: “Is that an Airbus or a Boeing?” For beginners, most airliners look the same at first – two engines under the wings, one tail, a row of windows. But if you know where to look, you can tell Airbus and Boeing apart before the aircraft even reaches the runway. This guide shows you the five spots where the manufacturers give themselves away, goes through the typical look-alike pairs and explains why the newest generation turns the old rules of thumb upside down.

Airbus or Boeing: the short answer

Look at the nose and the cockpit windows first. Classic Boeings – 737, 757, 767 and 777 – have a rather pointed nose, and the lower edge of their side cockpit windows rises toward the rear in a V shape. On Airbus models from the A300 to the A340, the nose is rounder, the side windows end in a straight line at the bottom, and the rearmost side window has a beveled corner. If you can’t see the cockpit clearly, the landing gear, engine nacelles, wingtips and tail will help.

The second rule: the A350 and 787 are special cases. Both belong to a new generation with a design language of their own. For them you need cues of their own, which follow further down in the text.

The five features at a glance

Airbus and Boeing have been building aircraft for the same markets for decades. That is why there are almost always pairs of similar size and similar looks facing each other. There are differences all the same, because each manufacturer maintains its own design traditions. You will find the background on both companies in our profiles of Airbus and Boeing.

Feature	Typical Airbus	Typical Boeing
Nose and cockpit	round, side windows straight at the bottom, rear window with a beveled corner (A300 to A340)	pointed, side windows with a V-shaped rising lower edge (737, 757, 767, 777)
Main landing gear	A320 family with gear doors and a higher stance	737 with wheels exposed in the belly of the fuselage, sits low to the ground
Wingtips	wingtip fences, Sharklets, add-on winglets (A330/A340), wide sweeping tip (A350)	blended or split scimitar winglets (737 NG), forked (737 MAX), raked wingtips (787, 777-300ER, 777-200LR, 777F)
Engines	round nacelles, very large on the neo family	flattened at the bottom on the 737 Classic and NG, chevrons on the 737 MAX and 787
Tail	underside of the fuselage below the tail runs rather straight on widebodies	dorsal fin in front of the 737’s vertical stabilizer, knife-shaped tail cone of the 777

The table describes tendencies, not laws. What matters is that you combine several features. A single detail can mislead you because of modifications, retrofits or poor visibility.

Feature 1: nose and cockpit windows

The cockpit is the most reliable difference, because both manufacturers carried their nose shapes forward within their families for decades. The nose and fuselage cross-section of the 737 go back to the 707 and 727. Early 737s therefore even still had the small “eyebrow windows” above the main windows, inherited from those predecessors.

On Airbus, you recognize the family by the beveled corner of the rearmost side window. You will find this notch on the A300, A310, on every member of the A320 family from the A318 to the A321, and on the A330 and A340. Combined with the straight lower edge of the side windows and the rounder nose, this gives the typical, slightly “friendlier” Airbus look.

Boeing cockpits, by contrast, look more angular. The side windows rise toward the rear, and the nose tapers to a sharper point. You can see this especially clearly on the Boeing 737-800, on the long “pencil” 757-200 and on the 777-300ER.

Feature 2: landing gear and ground clearance

The Boeing 737 sits conspicuously low to the ground. Its main landing gear retracts into the fuselage without the wheels being fully covered by doors: only the gear legs have partial covers, the tire sidewalls stay visible in flight, and hubcaps close off the contour. When a 737 flies over you, you can therefore see the round wheels in the belly of the fuselage.

The A320 sits higher and has gear doors. In a flyover, the underside of the fuselage looks smoother.

On larger types, you count the wheels per main gear leg:

• Two wheels: A320 family, 737 – both narrowbody jets.
• Four wheels: 757-200, 767-300ER, 787, A330 and A350-900.
• Six wheels: all 777 versions and the A350-1000, which received a six-wheel bogie because of its higher weight.
• Additional center gear: The four-engine A340 has a third main gear leg under the fuselage, and the A380 even has four main gear legs.

Feature 3: engines and nacelles

On the 737, Boeing had to fit ever larger engines under an aircraft that sits very low to the ground. The solution: the engines sit farther forward, ahead of the wing’s leading edge, accessories were moved to the sides of the nacelle, and on the 737 Classic and 737 NG the inlet is flattened at the bottom. This slightly oval nacelle is a very good cue when you see the 737 from the front.

The 737 MAX 8 has larger LEAP engines with a serrated trailing edge, the so-called chevrons. You see the same serrations on the 787 and on the 747-8. On Airbus narrowbody jets, the nacelles are round. You recognize the A320neo by its distinctly bulkier engines. Airbus offers two engines for the neo family: the CFM LEAP-1A and the Pratt & Whitney GTF.

Feature 4: wingtips

Hardly anything reveals family and build year as quickly as the wingtips:

• Wingtip fences: small triangles that project up and down at the wingtip – typical of older aircraft of the A320 family. The A380 also carries a fence like this.
• Sharklets: tall, upturned tips on the A320 family. Airbus unveiled them in 2009, and the first A320 with them was delivered in December 2012. Today, all neo models have them, as do many younger ceo aircraft.
• Add-on winglets with a kink: first-generation A330 and A340.
• Wide sweeping tip: The A350 curves its wing end upward in a wide arc, with no visible kink.
• Blended and split scimitar winglets: many 737 NGs. The split scimitar variant additionally has a small element pointing down.
• Forked winglet: the 737 MAX, with a large element pointing up and a smaller one pointing down.
• Raked wingtips: wing ends swept back at an angle with no winglet on the 787 and on the younger 777 versions 777-300ER, 777-200LR and 777F. The first 777 versions have plainer, shorter wing ends.

Watch out with the 767 and the 757: many aircraft have retrofitted blended winglets; from the factory, they flew without. So the wingtip alone is not enough here.

Feature 5: tail and vertical stabilizer

At the tail, there are two features worth remembering. The 737 has a dorsal fin in front of the vertical stabilizer, a flat extension that blends into the top of the fuselage. The A320 lacks it. The 777 has a knife-shaped flat tail cone, with the exhaust of the auxiliary power unit at its end. On the A350, the end of the fuselage is round.

On Airbus widebody jets, the underside of the fuselage below the tail mostly runs in a straighter line, while Boeing widebody jets sweep up more sharply at the rear. That is a detail for advanced spotters, but it is easy to see in a side profile in a photo.

The typical look-alike pairs

In practice, you need the features mainly for a handful of pairs that really look similar.

A320 vs. 737

The classic duel at every European airport. You recognize the 737 by its pointed nose, dorsal fin, low stance and exposed wheels. On the 737 Classic and NG, the flattened nacelles come on top; on the MAX, the chevrons and the forked winglet. The A320 family looks rounder, sits higher and carries fences or Sharklets. At Ryanair you see almost only 737s, while at Eurowings and Lufthansa on short-haul routes you mostly see the A320 family – a good training ground.

A321 vs. 757

Both are long, slender narrowbody jets. But the 757 stands on a much taller landing gear with four wheels per leg, while the A321 has two wheels per leg and sits close to the ground. On top of that come the Boeing nose and the 757’s large engines.

A330 vs. 767

Two twinjet widebodies with a similar silhouette. The 767 has a strikingly slim fuselage, a tapering tail and often retrofitted, tall blended winglets. The A330 carries the Airbus cockpit with the window notch and the add-on winglet with a kink. The A330-900 also stands out for its large engines and wide sweeping wingtips.

A350 vs. 787

Here the nose rule fails. The A350 has six cockpit windows with a dark border that looks like a mask, and a slight kink between the cockpit and the nose tip that is reminiscent of a beak. The 787 has four large windows, a smoothly flowing nose, raked wingtips and chevrons on the engines. The A350 flies exclusively with the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB, whose nacelles have smooth trailing edges.

A350-1000 vs. 777

Both have six-wheel landing gear – so that doesn’t help here. Look at the tail cone: knife-shaped flat on the 777, round on the A350. Then there are the wingtips (swept back at an angle on the 777-300ER, curving wide upward on the A350) and the A350’s mask.

A380 vs. 747

Both have four engines, but the upper deck of the A380 extends over the entire length of the fuselage. So you see two continuous rows of windows. On the 747-8 and the 747-400, the upper deck is limited to the distinctive hump at the front. More on the history of the Jumbo can be found in The history of the Boeing 747.

The exceptions: A220, Embraer and others

Not every jet at the airport comes from the two big manufacturers. The A220 carries the Airbus name but was developed by Bombardier as the C Series. It has a design language of its own, with four cockpit windows, and follows none of the Airbus rules of thumb. Swiss and airBaltic use it prominently in Europe.

The Embraer E190 and its siblings are also often confused with small Airbus or Boeing models. But they are shorter and have a cockpit of their own. An overview of all the common types is given in the guide Aircraft recognition for beginners.

The type code as a cross-check

In schedules and tracking services, every type is listed with an ICAO type designator. Airbus codes mostly start with A (for example A320, A20N, A359), Boeing codes with B (B738, B38M, B77W, B789). That lets you quickly check your identification at the fence. There are exceptions, though: the A220 appears as BCS1 and BCS3, the codes of the ATR turboprops also start with A, and some Beechcraft models carry B codes as well. How the codes are structured is explained in IATA and ICAO codes explained. How you can see live what is arriving is covered in Flight tracking with ADS-B for spotters.

By the way, the registration doesn’t help with the question of the manufacturer: it shows the country of registry, not the manufacturer. But through a fleet database, you can use it to get to the exact type – more on that in Understanding aircraft registrations.

Typical identification mistakes

• Looking only at the wingtips. Retrofits make winglets an unreliable single cue. Always combine them with the nose or landing gear.
• Taking the livery as a hint. Many airlines fly both manufacturers; Lufthansa, for example, flies the A320 family, A350, 747-8 and 787 in the same paint scheme.
• Applying the old rules to the A350 and 787. On the new generation, window shape and nose tell you something different than on the classics.
• Guessing at night. The common rule of thumb about the strobe lights – two quick flashes on Airbus, one on Boeing – is a hint, not proof.

How to train your eye

You learn fastest at airports with lots of mixed traffic. At the Düsseldorf observation deck, you often see the A320 family and the 737 right next to each other. At the Zeppelinheim viewing platform in Frankfurt and the Munich Airport visitors’ hill, widebody jets such as the A350, 787, 777 and A380 come into play. If you are just starting out, the guide Plane spotting for beginners helps you choose your first spots.

Conclusion

Airbus and Boeing differ in a few but reliable places. The nose and the cockpit windows almost always provide the answer on the classics. Landing gear, engine nacelles, wingtips and tail confirm it or help when the cockpit is out of sight. For the A350 and 787, you need cues of their own, and the A220 falls completely outside the pattern. With a few hours of practice at an airport with mixed traffic and the type code as a cross-check, the question “Airbus or Boeing?” quickly becomes routine.