Aircraft Recognition Guide

Welcome to this aircraft recognition guide! Whether you want to dis­tin­guish an Airbus from a Boeing, learn the diffe­rences between an F-35 and an F-22 or have a photo of an unknown aircraft type (but wish to identify), this website helps you recognise and identify different airplane and helicopter types. The coverage is large: small general aviation & homebuilt aircraft, bizprops, bizjets, commuters, propliners. jetliners, military training & transport aircraft, fighters and all sorts of helicopters. This aircraft recog­ni­tion guide is also meant for aviation enthu­siasts that already know the basic aircraft type, but want to know how to keep the different versions of an aircraft type apart and identify the exact version.

The basics

Recognising an aircraft type starts by looking at specific characteristics of the aircraft: what type of aircraft is it (e.g. airplane or heli­cop­ter), is it a jet or propeller aircraft, how many engines does it have, what is the wing and tail configuration? Or how many rotors does the helicopter have, does it have wheels or skids?

If you do not (yet) know what the main characte­ristics of airplanes and helicopters are, look menu item "How to recognise aircraft" for an explanation with many simple drawings with definitions.

Step 2: Determine the main charac­te­ristics

Once you know what to look for you can start the identification by combining the main features of the airplane or helicopter to be identified. This website allows you to use checkboxes to mark the (main) properties. As the characteristics are quite different, the are separate pages for airplanes and helicopters. The more different charac­teristics you give, the better your search will be narrowed, eventually (hopefully) bringing you to the webpage of the aircraft you are looking for. Click on the photo of title of the airplane or helicopter and this brings you to the dedicated pages for that type, if available.

Step 3: Determine the detailed features

Once you have determined the main aircraft type or family, you can look into further details to identify the exact aircraft/helicopter type. The dedicated pages for the basic type give an overview of the differences between the subtypes and versions to distinguish the exact variant. 

If you already know the main type of the aircraft and are just looking for the exact subtype you can also start the identification directly from the combination of manufacturer and main aircraft type on this page. You can also use the general search function. This covers the whole website and enables you to find all appearances of the aircraft type you are looking for.