Collect all aircraft types: build and tick off a type list

The first A380, the first MD-11, eventually an ATR at a regional airport: if you spot for a while, you quickly notice that every new type is more fun than the twentieth A320 of the day. For many spotters, this turns into a project of its own: collecting all aircraft types and ticking them off a type list. This guide shows you how to build such a list sensibly, which collecting rules you should set beforehand and how to find the types you are still missing in the end.

Collecting aircraft types: the short answer

A type collection works in three steps: set collecting rules, build a target list, record every sighting with proof. The rules determine how finely you count. The target list tells you what you set out to find and what is still missing. And recording makes sure that in two years you still know where and when you first saw a type.

Unlike collecting registrations, it is not about the individual aircraft but about the type. A Lufthansa A350 and a Singapore A350 are two sightings, but only one type. That makes the list shorter, but the delineation more demanding – because what counts as “a type” is not that clear-cut.

Step one: what counts as a separate type?

This is the most important question of your project, and there is no universal answer. Three counting levels suggest themselves:

• Families: A320 family, Boeing 737, Embraer E-Jets. A coarse list, quick wins, but little depth. Good for getting started.
• Base types: A319, A320, A321, 737-800, 737 MAX 8. Here you distinguish lengths and generations. For most collectors the most sensible level.
• Sub-variants: Freighter versus passenger version, long-range variants, combi versions. Very detailed, but also error-prone, because many variants can hardly be told apart from the outside.

An example makes the effect clear: the Boeing 747 is a single entry at the family level. At the base-type level it becomes several – from the 747-400 to the 747-8. And at the variant level, the 747-8F, 747-400F or the Dreamlifter are added.

ICAO type designators as a neutral yardstick

If you don’t want to draw every boundary yourself, go by the ICAO type designators. The International Civil Aviation Organization assigns two- to four-character codes to aircraft types that can appear in flight plans and keeps them in a publicly searchable database (Doc 8643). The codes distinguish types where performance and characteristics differ for air traffic control – so pretty much at the base-type level.

Aircraft	ICAO code	IATA code	What this means for your list
Airbus A320ceo	A320	320	separate entry at the base-type level
Airbus A320neo	A20N	32N	own code, so a separate entry by ICAO logic
Airbus A380-800	A388	388	unambiguous, only one production version
Boeing 777-300ER	B77W	77W	separate from the 777-300
Boeing 737 MAX 8	B38M	7M8	separate from the 737-800 (B738)

The advantage: flight tracker services and fleet databases usually show exactly these codes. Your list can therefore be matched directly against live data and fleet lists. How the codes are structured and how to read them is explained in the guide to ICAO type designators; the difference from the three-character IATA codes is covered in IATA and ICAO codes explained.

Typical borderline cases

Even with ICAO codes, questions remain that you should answer once for yourself:

• Freighter conversions: An A321P2F converted to a freighter usually carries the same type designator as the passenger version. If you still want to list it separately, you need a column of its own.
• Military derivatives: A tanker based on an airliner is technically related, but a different aircraft. Many collectors count it separately.
• Museum aircraft: A Concorde in a museum is a real encounter, but not flight operations. A separate list for static exhibits keeps the main list clean.
• Helicopters and light aircraft: They multiply the list. Whether you count them depends on how often you are out at general aviation airfields.

Step two: build the target list

Without a target list you know what you have, but not what you are missing. A list of all aircraft types in the world is unsuitable for this – the ICAO directory contains over ten thousand entries, most of them light aircraft and long-gone types. It is better to build it in rings.

Fleet databases, flight tracker services with a type filter and the ICAO directory work well as sources. How to use a fleet database for such questions is shown in the guide to Planespotters.net. For the list itself, a table with a few columns is enough: type code, name, manufacturer, status (open, seen, photographed), date and place of the first sighting. A template for this is described in the article on the spotting logbook in Excel or Google Sheets.

Step three: identify with confidence, record cleanly

You may only tick off what you have identified with confidence. With big differences this is easy – nobody confuses an A380. It gets difficult with families whose members differ only in length, engines or wingtips. There are dedicated identification guides for the most common cases:

• Telling the A318, A319, A320 and A321 apart
• Recognizing the A320neo or ceo
• Telling the Boeing 737 Original, Classic, NG and MAX apart
• Identifying regional jets and telling turboprops apart

The most reliable way remains the registration. If you have read or photographed it, the exact type can be verified through fleet databases or aircraft registries. That is why every first sighting should include at least: type, registration, airline, date, airport and spot. If you only note “saw a 737”, you can’t correct the entry later. More on setting up a logbook is in the guide Logging sightings; whether paper or an app suits you better is compared in Logbook: paper or digital.

The last types: where they hide

A type list fills up rapidly at first and then ever more slowly. That is not due to lack of effort, but because the remaining types are rare for good reason. The following overview sorts typical gaps by where to find them.

Kind of type	Where you find it	How you plan
Long-haul widebody jets	big hubs	check the flight schedule, use the morning arrival waves
Freighters and freighter conversions	cargo hubs, often at night and in the early morning	live data and flight schedule, a spot with a view of the cargo apron
Regional aircraft and turboprops	regional airports, feeders at hubs	look up routes of smaller airlines specifically
Retiring types	few remaining operators	prioritize early, while they still fly
Special and factory aircraft	factory airports, test flight centers	follow test flights on the radar
Military and government aircraft	military airfields, airshows	use event dates and publicly accessible areas

For freighters, it is worth a look at Leipzig/Halle: as a major cargo hub, the airport sees significantly more cargo types than pure passenger airports, occasionally also heavyweights like the Antonov An-124 – exactly when is revealed by the flight schedule and live data. The guide Plane spotting in Leipzig/Halle presents the suitable spots, and Identifying cargo aircraft helps with identification. For factory aircraft like the Beluga XL, the guide to test flights and factory flights helps.

Retiring types deserve priority, such as older freighter types like the MD-11: once a type has disappeared from scheduled service, often only the museum remains. That is why types with only a few remaining operators belong at the very top of the wish list. How to judge how rare a type actually is at your airport is described in the article How rare is my sighting?; tips for hunting rarities can be found under Spotting rare aircraft.

Alerts instead of waiting

For individual missing types, hours of waiting are rarely efficient. Notifications that trigger as soon as a specific type is on its way make more sense. How to set up such alerts in flight tracker services is shown in the guide Flight tracking: setting up alerts. Important: military and private flights are not always visible in public data – so a missing display does not necessarily mean nothing is flying.

Getting more out of the list

A well-kept type list is more than a tally sheet. Because every first sighting contains date, place and airline, you can analyze it: at which airport did the most new types turn up? Which manufacturer is underrepresented in your list? How many new types do you manage per year? Ideas for this are in the guide to analyzing your own spotting statistics.

Many spotters combine the type list with related collections. A list of the airlines you have seen complements it well, as does an overview of the airports visited. Together, the three lists give a fairly complete picture of your spotting career.

Common mistakes when collecting types

• Starting without rules. If you change the counting method after a year, you have to re-sort the whole list – and for old entries you often no longer know which variant it was.
• Ticking off from memory. “Must have been a 737-900” is not a sighting. Without a registration or photo, the entry stays open.
• Starting the list too big. A target list with hundreds of exotic types is frustrating. Start with achievable types and expand in rings.
• Putting off retiring types. Types with few remaining operators can disappear from scheduled service within a single season.
• Mixing museum and flight operations. If you count both in one list, your numbers lose their meaning. A second column solves the problem.
• Forgetting safety rules. Even for a missing type, the same applies: only publicly accessible areas. What is allowed is summarized in Is plane spotting allowed?.

Conclusion

Collecting aircraft types is a project that grows with every sighting and still never quite gets finished. Three things make the difference between a loose tally and a real collection: clear counting rules, a target list that grows in rings outward from your home airport, and proof for every first sighting. ICAO type designators give you a neutral notation that fits flight tracker data and fleet lists. If you are still unsure about identification at the beginning, the guide Identifying aircraft types for beginners helps you get started.