Boeing or Airbus? How to tell them apart

Start with the nose

Airbus jets have a rounded, blunt nose, with the cockpit windows set into a smooth curve. Boeing’s narrow-body nose is longer and pointier. Some older 737s also have small “eyebrow” windows above the cockpit.

737 vs A320 family

The most common pair in the sky, and the one people mix up most. The 737-800 and the A320 are close in size, but they differ in the details.

• Look at the belly. The 737 has no doors over its main wheels. When one passes overhead with the gear up, you can see the tires sitting in round wells in the belly. The A320 family closes doors over them.
• Check the engines. The 737 sits low to the ground, so on 737s before the MAX the engine nacelles are flattened at the bottom to clear the runway. A320 engines are round.
• The MAX. The 737 MAX has bigger, round engines with zigzag serrated edges at the back, and a split winglet that points both up and down. Some older 737s have been retrofitted with split winglets too, so check the engines before calling it.
• The neo. The A320neo has much larger engines than the original A320, and tall curved wingtips called sharklets. Many newer A320s without the new engines have sharklets as well, so engine size is the better tell. Older A320s have small wingtip fences that stick up and down like an arrowhead.

The A321 is a stretched A320. If it looks like an A320 that kept going, it probably is.

777 vs A350

• Count the wheels. Every 777 has six wheels on each main landing gear leg. The A350-900 has four. The bigger A350-1000 also has six, so use the next clue to be sure.
• Sunglasses. The A350’s cockpit windows are framed in black paint, like a mask. Some newer Airbus jets copy the look; the 777 has plain Boeing windows.
• The tail cone. The 777 ends in a flat, blade-like tail cone. The A350’s is round.
• Wingtips. The A350’s wingtips curve smoothly upward. The 777 has no winglet: the original versions end square, and the long-range 777-200LR and -300ER have raked-back tips.

787 vs A330

• Four cockpit windows. The 787 is the only wide-body with four large cockpit windows instead of six. If you can see the nose, this decides it.
• Wingtips. The 787’s long wings end in a clean, raked tip with no winglet, and they flex visibly upward in flight. The A330 has a winglet; the newer A330neo has a longer, curved wingtip.
• Engine exhausts. The 787’s engines have serrated, wavy rear edges. The original A330’s are smooth.

747 vs A380

Both have four engines and two decks, but the 747’s upper deck is only the hump behind the cockpit. The A380’s upper deck runs the whole length of the plane, with two full rows of windows from nose to tail, and the whole aircraft looks taller and fatter. The newer 747-8 has a longer hump, raked wingtips and serrated engines; the 747-400 has upturned winglets. More on both in which planes have four engines and what plane has a hump on top.

When it’s too high to see

At cruising altitude, a 737 and an A320 are the same white dot with two contrails. The details above work on approach and departure, when the plane is low enough to see the belly and the nose. Higher than that, read the aircraft’s own broadcast instead: here’s how to find out what’s flying over you, and our spotter’s guide covers everything else with wings.