Telling the Boeing 777 and 787 apart: tail, landing gear, windows and engines

A large twinjet with a Boeing silhouette floats over the fence, and the question comes immediately: Triple Seven or Dreamliner? Both fly with two engines, both have two aisles in the cabin, both show up daily at big airports. Still, they belong to different generations, and you can see that in many details. This guide shows you which features reliably separate the Boeing 777 and 787, which features lead you astray and how to determine the exact variant afterward.

The short answer

The surest way to tell the 777 and 787 apart is by four features: the 777’s main landing gear has six wheels per leg, the 787’s four. The 787 has a smooth nose with four cockpit panes, the 777 the classic six-pane nose. The 787’s engines end serrated, the 777’s smooth. And the 777’s tail ends in a flat blade, the 787’s more in a round cone. Even two of these four points are enough in practice for a reliable identification.

The background is the generational change. The 777 took off on its first flight on June 12, 1994, and entered scheduled service with United in 1995. The 787 first flew on December 15, 2009, with the first scheduled flight following in October 2011 with All Nippon Airways. In between lie 15 years in which Boeing switched from an aluminum fuselage to carbon-fiber construction – and that is exactly what shapes the Dreamliner’s look.

Feature 1: the main landing gear

If you only have one glance, look at the landing gear. The 777 rests on two main gear legs with six wheels each, that is three axles in a row. There is no additional center gear. These six-wheel bogies are rare on airliners and make the 777 almost unmistakable on approach. The same goes for the new 777-9, which carries the principle over.

The 787 also has two main gear legs, but only four wheels per leg on two axles – the standard picture you also know from the A330, A350-900 or 767. So the landing gear reliably separates the 777 from the 787, but not from every other widebody jet. You’ll find more on the logic of landing gear configurations in the guide landing gear as an identification feature.

The limit of this feature: in cruise or on departing aircraft that have already retracted the landing gear, it doesn’t help. Then nose, engines and tail take over.

Feature 2: nose and cockpit windows

The front is the second main feature and works even with the landing gear retracted – especially on the apron and while taxiing.

• Boeing 777: six cockpit panes, two at the front and two on each side. The lower edge of the side panes rises toward the rear in a V shape. The nose looks sturdy and rather blunt, matching the wide fuselage. This is the classic Boeing face that you also know from the 757 and 767.
• Boeing 787: only four large cockpit panes. The nose is smooth, slim and evenly rounded, without the distinctive edges of older Boeings. From an oblique front angle, it looks almost as if cast in one piece.

The four-pane nose in particular is a strong feature because among Boeing widebody jets it appears only on the Dreamliner. The A350’s cockpit is also modern, but there the dark surround of the panes stands out – the distinction is explained in the article A350 or Boeing 787?. The guide how to identify aircraft types by nose and cockpit windows gives a general overview of nose shapes.

Feature 3: engines and chevrons

The third feature sits under the wings. The 787 flies with two engine options, the GEnx-1B from GE Aerospace or the Trent 1000 from Rolls-Royce. Both nacelles have serrated chevrons on the trailing edge that look like a saw blade and dampen jet noise. They are easy to see from the side, especially in side light.

The 777 has no chevrons. Its nacelles end smooth and are visibly larger. Which engines hang there depends on the variant:

Variant	Engines	Chevrons
777-200, 777-200ER, 777-300 (“Classics”)	GE90, PW4000 or Trent 800	no
777-300ER	GE90-115B only	no
777-200LR and 777F	GE90-110B or -115B only	no
777-8 and 777-9	GE9X only	no
787-8, 787-9, 787-10	GEnx-1B or Trent 1000	yes

The GE90 nacelles of the 777-300ER are so large that they look almost massive next to the fuselage. The Dreamliner engines are smaller, slimmer and easy to identify thanks to the serrations. How to tell engines apart in general is explained in the guide how to identify engines.

Feature 4: the tail cone

The tail is the feature for a second look – and one of the most elegant. The 777 ends in a laterally flattened, knife-like tail cone. From the side, the rear fuselage looks like a blade sloping away. At the end sits the exhaust of the auxiliary power unit (APU). Hardly any other airliner has this “blade” shape, which is why it is a very reliable 777 marker on takeoffs seen from behind or in taxi shots.

On the Dreamliner, the rear fuselage ends rounder and cone-shaped, without the pronounced blade shape. If you look from behind at a departing aircraft and the tail looks flat like a knife, you have a 777 in front of you.

Windows and fuselage: the finer differences

The cabin windows are another clue if you are close enough. The classic 777 has windows of about 38 by 25 centimeters. On the Dreamliner, at about 47 by 27 centimeters, they are clearly taller – a direct side effect of the carbon-fiber fuselage, which allows larger cutouts. In close-ups, the 787’s row of windows therefore looks airier, with tall, oval windows. Inside, they have no shades but electrically dimmable glass – from the outside, though, you see that at most as differently tinted panes.

Careful with the new 777X generation: the 777-9 takes over some cabin ideas from the Dreamliner program, including larger windows. The window feature therefore works reliably only between the classic 777 and the 787.

For the fuselage itself, the cross-section helps: at about 6.20 meters of outside width, the 777 is visibly thicker than the 787 at about 5.77 meters. Side by side on the apron you notice it, in a single shot in the sky hardly.

The traps: length and wingtips

Two features that many spotters use intuitively lead you astray with this pair.

Fuselage length: You think of the 777 as a very long jet. That’s true for the 777-300 and 777-300ER at about 73.9 meters. But the 777-200 and 777-200ER only come to about 63.7 meters – so the 787-10 at about 68.3 meters is longer than the short 777. The 787-9 at 62.8 meters is almost level. So length at most reliably separates the long 777 versions from the Dreamliner.

Variant	Length (approx.)	Wingspan (approx.)
787-8	56.7 m	60.1 m
787-9	62.8 m	60.1 m
777-200 / 777-200ER	63.7 m	60.9 m
787-10	68.3 m	60.1 m
777-300ER	73.9 m	64.8 m
777-9	76.7 m	71.8 m (64.8 m on the ground)

Wingtips: The 787 has raked wingtips swept back at an angle, without a winglet. But the second 777 generation – 777-300ER, 777-200LR and 777F – also has extended, strongly raked wingtips. Only the older Classics have clearly shorter tips. Anyone who says “raked tips equal 787” is therefore often wrong. You’ll find more on the different tip shapes in the guide winglets, sharklets and raked wingtips.

One difference on the wing helps anyway: the 787’s carbon-fiber wing is very flexible and bends visibly upward in flight. In a load test on the ground, the wingtips were bent up about 7.6 meters. On approach, the Dreamliner’s wing therefore looks like a drawn bow, the 777’s wing more classic and straighter.

Features compared

Feature	Boeing 777	Boeing 787
Main landing gear	6 wheels per leg (3 axles)	4 wheels per leg (2 axles)
Cockpit panes	6, side panes rising in a V shape	4 large panes, smooth nose
Engine ends	smooth	serrated chevrons
Tail cone	flat, knife-like (“blade”)	rounder cone
Cabin windows	about 38 × 25 cm (Classics and 300ER)	about 47 × 27 cm
Wing in flight	rather straight	strongly bent upward
Fuselage width	about 6.20 m	about 5.77 m
First flight	1994	2009

After the family: the exact variant

Once the family is clear, it’s about the variant. For the 787, length helps most, because wingspan, nose and engine options are the same on all three versions. The 787-8 looks stubby, the 787-9 stretched, and the 787-10 has a strikingly long row of windows ahead of and behind the wing.

For the 777, you combine length, wingtips and engine:

• Short fuselage, short wingtips, possibly PW4000 or Trent 800 nacelles: probably a 777-200ER or the rarer 777-200.
• Short fuselage with long raked wingtips and GE90: 777-200LR – or, without a row of windows, the 777F freighter.
• Long fuselage with long raked wingtips and GE90: the widespread 777-300ER.
• Very long fuselage and wingtips folded up on the ground: the 777-9, whose deliveries have been delayed several times – check before spotting whether and where it already flies in scheduled service.

When it gets tight, the type code settles the question. In flight tracking services, the 777-300ER appears as B77W, the 787-9 as B789. How to find a specific aircraft by its registration is shown in the guide tracking aircraft by registration.

Where you can see both types side by side

The easiest way to practice telling them apart is at a hub with lots of long-haul traffic. At Frankfurt Airport, Lufthansa flies the 787-9, among others, and numerous foreign airlines add 777s and 787s. Emirates is known for its large 777 fleet, and Qatar Airways flies both families. For the freighter version, it’s worth looking at Lufthansa Cargo with its 777Fs. Which airline sends which type on a given day changes with the schedule – check it right before your visit.

As a location for approaches in Frankfurt, the Zeppelinheim viewing platform is a good choice. At the Munich Airport visitors’ hill, you see widebody jets taxiing and taking off up close – ideal for nose, engines and tail. You’ll find tips on light in the guide plane spotting at Frankfurt Airport.

What to watch out for

• Never just one feature. Combine at least two of the four main features before you commit.
• Use the viewing angle. From below on approach, you see landing gear and wing flex; from the side, nose, windows and chevrons; from behind, the tail.
• Don’t infer the type from the airline. Many airlines fly both families in parallel – the livery doesn’t reveal the type.
• Keep the new generation in mind. The 777-9 brings larger windows and folding wingtips. Landing gear, nose and smooth engine ends remain typical of the 777, though.

If you’re just starting out with identifying types, you’ll find the basics in the guide aircraft identification for beginners, and the distinction between the manufacturers in the article telling Airbus and Boeing apart.

Conclusion

The Boeing 777 and 787 look similar at first glance but come from different generations. You recognize the 777 by its six-wheel landing gear, the classic six-pane nose, large, smooth-ending engines and the knife-like tail. The Dreamliner shows up with a four-pane nose, serrated chevrons, four-wheel landing gear and a wing that bends far upward in flight. Length and wingtips only help afterward with the variant. You’ll find more details about the manufacturer in the Boeing profile.