A Guide To Telling Wide-Body (aka Twin-Aisle) Aircraft Apart

I figured that it might be a good time to write a fun article these days relating to something purely “avgeeky,” as opposed to contemplating the present and future of aviation in relation to COVID-19. So I decided to write a guide which tells commercial aircraft apart, which is something I’m sure many people will find very useful, especially to those moderately interested in aviation who can’t tell almost every type of commercial aircraft apart in seconds, like I can. I can’t tell the amount of times in which someone has said to me something along the lines of “oh look, I think that’s a 737,” when the aircraft is clearly an A330, so to those people who have absolutely no idea about telling aircraft apart: this article is for you.

Note: I originally was only going to write one post about it, but then I figured that it was far too much information to put in one post, so I decided to write two consecutive posts: one regarding wide-body aircraft and another on narrow-body and regional aircraft (though who knows–maybe I’ll even split those up and write 3!). I also tried to create diagrams for most aircraft, although I didn’t for all, especially those which I didn’t have photos from a good angle of.

The Double-Deckers: The A380 and The 747

I’ll start this article off by describing how you can easily recognize possibly the two most iconic aircraft ever built: the A380 and the 747 (in the unlikely event that you can’t tell them apart, a lot of this article is probably going to be very confusing to you…). The A380 is possibly the most recognizable aircraft by far, because it’s the largest; it’s also the only (modern) commercial aircraft that has two full-length decks, and with its gigantic size and four engines, it should be very easy to spot.

However, perhaps the most iconic aircraft ever, being the first wide-body aircraft, is also quite easily recognizable. It made its maiden flight in 1969 with Pan Am, and countless airlines have operated many different variants of the aircraft. The 747 is easily recognizable by its four engines and its partial upper deck “hump” at the front of the aircraft, which no other aircraft have. However, there are many different variants of the Boeing 747, such as the 747-100, the 747-100B, the 747SR, the 747-200, the stubby 747SP, the 747-300, the 747-400, and the 747-8, only the latter two of which are currently in commercial service, although the -400 is becoming more and more scarce each day.

The Boeing 747-400 is easily differentiable from any other 747 variant as it is the only model to have winglets (to be more specific, they have canted winglets), in addition to being distinguishable from earlier variants (besides the -300) in that it has a door on each side of the upper deck.

Meanwhile, the Boeing 747-8I and the Boeing 747-8F, the commercial and cargo variants of the latest variant, respectively, are distinguishable in that they have blended wingtips which swoop back instead of winglets, in addition to having a larger upper deck (passenger variant only) and 787-style engine pointy edges on the back of the engine nacelles.

Current Single-Deck Wide-Body Aircraft

When it comes to single deck wide-body aircraft, there actually aren’t that many aircraft in active commercial service. However, the vast majority of aircraft, including wide-body aircraft, have multiple sub-types, which, especially if you have a hard time distinguishing different aircraft from each other, can be somewhat difficult to recognize. For example, the 777 actually has 5 in-service commercial variants, including the 777-200, 777-200ER, 777-200LR, 777-300, 777-300ER, along with the 777-8 and 777-9 coming into commercial service soon, and the 777F being the freighter version of the aircraft. Also: if you’re struggling to tell the difference between wide-body and narrow-body aircraft (such as the 757 vs the 767) online by looking at pictures, IRL you should easily be able to spot the difference by comparing their sizes.

Firstly, let’s start with how to recognize the Boeing 767, which is the smallest wide-body aircraft and debuted with United in 1982 and is still in (cargo) production, with commercial production having ended several years ago. The 767 is currently mostly used by airlines on medium haul routes, such as on shorter transatlantic flights, although many airlines have and are in the process of retiring them. There are a few versions of the 767, including the original models: the 767-200 and the 767-200ER, which is nearly identical to the -200, besides that it has a longer range.

The 767-200 and 767-200ER are in very limited service and were retired by most American, United, and US Airways by the early 2010s, although they still are in widespread cargo operations and some commercial operations, such as with the new Eastern Airlines, The 767-200 and 767-200ER are very easily recognizable as they look extremely short and stubby and only have two main exit doors per side, along with one over-wing exit on each side; 767-200s/200ERs also don’t have winglets.

Meanwhile, the 767-300 is very rare nowadays and is only in service with a few airlines, while the 767-300ER, which is nearly identical to it (though isn’t in its specifications), is still in widespread commercial service, with airlines such as United and Delta. The 767-300ER can be recognized by its two main exit doors, its two over-wing exits per side (on most frames), along with its blended winglets on some airlines (more detailed representation in the image below).

The largest variant of the 767 is the 767-400ER (there is no such thing as a 767-400), which is only in service with two airlines, United and Delta (so you can immediately rule it out if you think you see a 767-400ER but if it’s not of one of those two airlines, though Continental operated them before United did). It never really gained popularity and is also the newest variant of the 767, and it can be recognized by its four exit doors per side and raked wingtips, among other details.

While it’s quite easy to recognize a 767-300, the 767-400 can be easily confused with 777s, especially the 777-200LR, as they both have four exit doors per side and raked wingtips, which essentially is when the part at the very end of the wing swoops back a bit, However, the 767-400 visibly has more doors between doors 1 and 2 than the 777-200LR, and door 3 is smaller on the 767-400 than on the 777-200LR.

I guess that leads me to the Boeing 777, which debuted in 1995 with United and is the backbone of many airlines’ long-haul fleets. The Boeing 777-200 and 777-200ER look nearly identical to each other and are very similar, besides that the -200ER has a greater range and MTOW, allowing it to fly long-haul and ultra-long-haul routes which the standard -200 couldn’t normally fly. The standard -200 is quite rare nowadays and is only operated by a handful of airlines, many of which (such as British Airways) are in the process of retiring them, and with COVID, the process likely will be expedited. The -200ER, however, is still quite popular among dozens of airlines, although many have started or are starting to replace them. The 777-200 series can be recognized by its 4 exit doors, by its large engines, and its lack of winglets (a distinguishing factor from other aircraft, such as the A330 or A340).

Boeing also made a third commercial variant of the 777-200: the 777-200LR. The 777-200LR (the LR stands for long-range) is an ultra-long-range version of the 777-200 and never became very popular, although a few airlines such as Delta (which is retiring them all) and Emirates do operate them. It can be distinguished from the 777-200 and 777-200ER (which it is nearly identical to, in terms of its looks) by its raked wingtips, similar to those on the 767-400 and 777-300ER.

The larger version of the 777 is the 777-300 which has two sub-variants: the 777-300 and the 777-300ER (the -300ER obviously has a longer range, due to the ER, signifying its Extended Range). The 777-300ER is still in production while the 777-300 is not, with the -300ER being the backbone of many airlines’ long-haul fleets. The -300 and -300ER both are distinguishable by their five full exit doors (per side), as opposed to the four on the -200 variants, and you can tell the two apart, as the -300ER has raked wingtips while the -300 does not.

Boeing is in the process of producing a new version of the 777: the 777X, consisting of the 777-8 and the 777-9, which has had numerous delays and will be able to fold the end of its wings up, in order to park at smaller gates, which exists largely due to its extremely large wing-span. The last variant of the 777 is the 777F, which is virtually identical (by eye) to the 777-200LR, besides its lack of windows.

The Boeing 777’s main competitors (which came around at about the same time) came from Airbus, and are the Airbus A340 and the A330. The Airbus A340 and the A330 came out at roughly the same time and are also roughly the same size, although the main difference between the two is that the A340 is a quadjet (this was back in the day where twinjets were much less reliable) while the A330 is a twinjet. Firstly, the Airbus A340 has four variants: the A340-200, the A340-300, the A340-500, and the A340-600. The A340-200 is the smallest (it’s roughly the size of the A330-200) and has the shortest range of the A340s and only is operated now by private owners, along with one being operated by Venezuela’s Conviasa. Meanwhile, the A340-300 was much more popular than the A340-200 and is still in (somewhat) widespread operation nowadays, by airlines such as Lufthansa or SWISS. It is slightly longer than the -200, and is easily recognizable by its four (quite small) engines and canted winglets, which it shares with all A340s and A330s, along with its four exit doors.

Meanwhile, the Airbus A340-500 was inaugurated over a decade after the -200 and -300 (also a couple of years after the -600), although it never gained much popularity. It’s an ultra-long-range aircraft with a range of 9,000nmi and operated long-haul routes such as Newark to Singapore, and also was the debut aircraft for Emirates’ famous first class suites. It’s slightly shorter than the A340-600 and can be recognized by its four exit doors per side (as opposed to the A340-600’s five per side) and by its larger engines than than A340-200 and A340-300. However, close to no airlines operate the A340-500 anymore (I believe that Azerbaijan Airlines is the only one still), as twin-engine jets such as the 777-300ER and A350-900 are much more fuel efficient.

Meanwhile, the A340-600, the longest single decker aircraft, is very similar to the A340-600, besides its slightly shorter range, larger capacity (it was pitched as a replacement for older 747s), and five exit doors per side. It also was more popular than the -500 and is still in service with a couple of airlines, such as Lufthansa and Iberia.

Overall, with the A340, the easiest way to tell it apart from other aircraft are it’s four engines and single deck, and one can tell different variants of the A340 apart by their number of doors and engine size. And don’t worry about the A340-200 very much, as they’re pretty much all retired.

The Airbus A330 is very similar to the A340, and both even used the same basic fuselage structure. However, at the time, because ETOPS was still in its infancy and twinjets just didn’t (or only rarely did) operate trans-oceanic flights, while now operating twin-jets on long-haul flights is commonplace, and quadjets are nearly extinct. So while now airline use A330s on long-haul routes all the time, the A330 originally was meant to replace the A300 in the market of high capacity medium-haul routes, which the A330 ironically is used less for today.

There are four commercial versions of the A330: the A330-200, the A330-300, along with the two versions of the A330neo: the A330-800 and the A330-900, with the latter two pretty much being direct replacements for the former two, although I won’t focus on the A330neo here. The A330-200 and the A330-300 are pretty much the same size as the A340-200 and the A340-300 (the names are no coincidence), respectively, with the main distinguishing factor being their two engines instead of four. They can also easily be distinguished from the 777, 767, 787, A350, and A330neo by their canted winglets, nearly identical to those on the A340 and 747. You can also distinguish the A330-200 from the A330-300 by the amount of windows between Door 1 and Door 2 (the -200 has about 11 while the -300 has about 17). Here’s a diagram I made for the A330-300:

And compare that to the A330-200:

Then there’s the A330neo, which is the newest version of the A330, which contains the A330-800 and the A330-900. The A330neo stands for new engine option and came with multiple new features in comparison to the A330, along with (obviously) new engines. The A330-800 isn’t even out yet (and is wildly unpopular), while the A330-900 is still pretty rare among airlines. You can easily recognize an A330neo by its distinct blended wingtips. However, while different from those on the A350, they still can be confused; you can tell an A330neo from an A350 additionally by looking at Door 3 on both aircraft: the third door on A330neos is not a full exit door and is quite small, while the A350 has four full exit doors.

And I guess that leads me to the A350-900, which now is Airbus’ second newest wide-body aircraft (the A330neo is a couple years newer), although is still in peak production. The A350 is Airbus’ new flagship aircraft and is pretty comparable to the 777 and A340 in size and in range. There are two versions of the A350: the A350-900 and the A350-1000 (although there is a sub-type of the A350-900: the A350-900ULR–which has a greater range). They are virtually identical to each other in terms of looks, although the -1000 has a slightly shorter range and has 22 windows between doors 1 and 2 instead of 15. The A350 also has distinct blended wingtips which don’t go as far up as the ones on the 737 or 767 do and aren’t at aren’t flat at an angle like the canted winglets on the A330 or 747 are, although do swoop upwards more than the ones on the 787 or A330neo. The A350 also has a distinct nose and has a sort of “mask” around the cockpit of the aircraft, much like the A330neo or A320neo, along with it having four full sized exit doors per side.

And compare that to the A350-1000, which is newer though is also somewhat less popular than the -900.

And lastly (in terms of modern commercial wide-body aircraft) is the Boeing 787, which has been wildly popular among airlines recently. There are three versions of the 787: the 787-8, 787-9, and 787-10, increasing in size chronologically. The 787 is quite recognizable due to its serrated engine nacelles, its wings which swoop up and back, its large windows, and its futuristic and distinct nose. The three versions of the 787 are nearly identical, besides in length, although the 787-9 does have a greater range than the 787-8 and the 787-10. One can easily tell the different versions of the 787 apart by looking at the number of windows between doors 1 and 2: the 787-8 has only 9 (it really is quite a stubby aircraft), the 787-9 has 14, while the 787-10 has 19.

And Compare that to the 787-8:

And to the 787-10:

Older Wide-Body Aircraft

Those are all of the current wide-body aircraft which are in widespread commercial operation at the moment. There are a couple of other wide body aircraft which are in cargo service or which are in minimal commercial use, so I figured that I should dedicate a different section to them, as you aren’t going to be seeing them operated by commercial airlines with any regularity.

The Airbus A300 and A310 were the first two Airbus aircraft to come into existence. The two aircraft are both twinjets and (some variants) have the range to do transatlantic flights, although by the time that twinjets were used on them, the A300 and A310 were already on their way out, meaning that they were mostly used for short-medium haul flights. However, the A310 was used until just this year by Air Transit and up until recently by Azores Airlines, among others on transatlantic flights. The A310 and A300 are still in use among a couple of airlines, among them predominantly being Iran Air and competitor Mahan Air.

The A300 debuted in 1972 and the A310, which is essentially just a much shorter version of the A300, debuted in 1983. They can be easily recognized and told apart by a couple of ways. Firstly, the A300 features wingtip fences which are much narrower than the ones on the A320s and A380s and also has four exit doors per side. Meanwhile, the A310 has larger wingtip fences, similar to those on the A320 or A380, in addition to having only three exit doors per side, one being an over-wing exit. The A310 is close to being extinct now, with almost no cargo airlines operating it, with less than 20 in service, while the A300 is still in widespread service with cargo airlines such as FedEx or UPS.

The final wide-body jet which operates for a commercial airline is the Russian built Ilyushin Il-96, which only operates for governments and Cubana. It’s the successor of the Il-86 (which is only now in military service), and has quite a distinct shape and is easily recognizable by its four engines, winglets, and nose (and you can know that unless it’s in a government or Cubana livery, it’s not an Il-96, and if it’s a wide-body aircraft in a Cubana livery, it’s the Il-96).

There are two other wide-body aircraft which are in solely cargo service, which are the DC-10 (which later known with enhancements as the MD-10 after Douglas Aircraft Company became McDonnell Douglas) and the MD-11. The DC-10 was the main competitor to the early 747 models and is a trijet, while the MD-11 was its successor and was made until 1997 until Boeing bought McDonnell Douglas; it was not as popular as the DC-10. The DC-10/MD-10 and MD-11 are very easily recognizable by their three engines, especially by the third engine which is right below/part of the vertical stabilizer. One can additionally tell the DC-10/MD-10 from the MD-11 through looking to see if the aircraft has canted winglets–if it does (and has a third engine), it’s an MD-11, and if it doesn’t, it’s a DC-10.

There is another wide-body trijet which I’m sure many are familiar with–the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, which was made from 1970 to 1984, although it hasn’t flown commercially for a long while and now is only in very limited service. Its third engine is also distinctly different from the one on the DC-10 and MD-11, as its third engine isn’t fully horizontal, unlike the DC-10/MD-11.

Conclusion

That pretty much covers all wide-body commercial aircraft. A lot of the current wide-body aircraft in commercial service can be quite hard to tell apart, so I hope that this made it easier to tell the difference between some of the most popular wide-body aircraft in commercial service! I didn’t go much in detail into the wide-body aircraft which are not in widespread service anymore, as you’re very unlikely to encounter them in the “wild,” although I found them important to recognize, as you still may find a couple flying around here and there. Also, stay tuned for my subsequent article on how to tell the difference between narrow-body aircraft, which should be a bit tricker than telling the difference between wide-bodies.