Seems like a natural topic, but every search I tried turned up nothing.

Is there good, concise information aimed at the traveller, not pilot or air professional, on airplane types and designators? For example, I've flown on various B737, MD80, B747, B757, B767, B777, Saab 340, etc. but I don't know the difference between a -300 and a -400. Are the designators arbitrary?

How about tips for telling one plane from another when you're bored and staring out the window while taxiing?

Or maybe an explanation for the third digit in the Bxxx series? E.g., the 757 is smaller than the 747. And why are the first and third digits always the same? Similar questions for Airbus planes.

Well, if you are REALLY intersted there are pocket books with this info in them that you can buy at bookstores or commercial aviation websites, usually they have a page dedicated to each a/c type with ways to tell the difference between a 767 and an A-300 for example.

If you see 744 written down that means 747-400, A345 means A340-500, 738 is a 737-800 etc etc.

For the 737 family, the 737-100 and 200 have the long "tube" looking engines attached under the wings, the 737-300 and up have the "tin can" looking engines attached ahead of the wing (for lack of a better description). The -300 is a little larger than the -200, the -400 is larger than the -300, the -500 is smaller than the -300 and with the "next generation" 737's, the -600 = the older -500 only with updated interiors, wings, etc, -700 = -300 and -800 = -400 with the -900 being the longest of them all.

I hope all those numbers didnt toally confuse you

It was their order of development and release. 707 came first (marketing-inspired name) then 727, 737, 747...777. The 717 came last, ironically, because the suits in Chicago (now) couldn't bear to keep an MD- designated plane (MD-80 aka DC-9) so they renamed it the 717. Sadly, it didn't hit the hot spot with the customers even so. Who woulda thunk? So now it's the 7E7 which is about as inspired a name as the A300-blah blah. Super Viscount. Stratoliner. Constellation. Comet. Now those were airplane names. Dreamliner? Oh please. How about the Stone Cypher? Or does that just refer to the profit margin?

Visit www.airliners.net. It's a photo site where planspotters post their pics and share info on the message boards. Submitting pics and reading the boards is free but posting is a $25 one-time fee.

I used to work for Burroughs/Unisys doing operating system software. The old Burroughs product names had a scheme: "B" (for Burroughs), followed by a number; the number of digits told you which broad product family, then the first digit told you more specifically, and then the second digit told you which model. B6000 and B7000 were large systems, and the B6500 and B7500 were the oldest, then came the B6600 and B7600, then the Bx700, the Bx800, and finally Bx900. Each one larger and newer than the old one. But after the B6900/B7900, no one was sure where to go next. The engineering group used "A9" as the code name, and finally, at the absolute last minute, marketing decided to ship it using that name. The entire "A Series" line had numbers that made no sense. Is an A3 smaller than an A4 or A11? How about an A15? It was crazy.

The L.A. Times has a big article a few days ago on the 717 line, complete with pictures of the plant and lots of the key people. It had a number of quotes saying the company is now committed to making it a success, mostly because it would cost too much to shut it down

I agree with you -- good names would help.

Thanks for your informative post.

I worked at that plant during the twilight years of the Douglas Aircraft Company, when the term inefficiency reached its zenith of understatement. (We built a DC-9 for Air Afrique, the fuselage of which was so badly bent because of a mid-fabrication earthquake that the guys on the line called it the "flying banana" - I always imagined the poor pilot somewhere over Gabon trying to figure out how the hell to set the trim on an asymetrical tube porpoising through the African sky... oh well. The only reason the plane was not dismantled and rebuilt after the quake was that Mister Mac - as in McD-D - was going to be touring the plant the following week with his USAF-given checkbook in hand. You know the bumper sticker - Jesus is coming, look busy...)

I frankly suspect the same dynamic was at work when Boeing came shopping for spare airplane plants. Of course the irony is that the chappie who guided MDD into the hereafter is now the CEO of Boeing. We're going to make the 717 a success? Look out, Gabon.

Check out the Commercial Airplanes area at www.boeing.com