Aircraft Recognition Guide

The Sikorsky S-76 was the first well streamlined helicopter developed in the United States aimed for the civil market. The production run spans about fourty years and covers four generations, from the S-76A to the S-76D. The way to distinguish them is described on the new page https://www.aircraftrecognitionguide.com/sikorsky-s-76.

There are multiple turbine conversions of the originally piston powered DHC-2 Beaver. Wipaire’s Boss Beaver (top) has the cowling of the DHC-2 MkIII with a normal curved tail. The latest Beaver turbine conversion is the Valdor BX Turbo Beaver. This has an air intake directly below the prop spinner. In addition, the original curved vertical stabiliser has a straight dorsal fillet.

The original MD-80s were much longer than the DC-9s. As a successor to the successful DC-9-30 (top), the MD-83 was shrunk into the MD-87, which has about the same length as the Series 30. Compared to DC-9, the MD-87 has an extended top of the vertical stabiliser and a longer strake on the nacelle, and a flat tail cone.

The four seat Piper PA-44 Seminole is one of the few piston twins with a T-tail. Still is looks very similar to the Beech 76 Duchess. You can learn about the differences on the page https://www.aircraftrecognitionguide.com/piper-pa-44.

The AW169 (bottom) clearly has its origin in the A109 (top) considering the fuselage and window arrangement. How­ever, the A109 has a tail rotor on the left end of the pointed tail boom and horizontal stabilisers with straight tips. Finally, it has a single wheel nose gear.

Like many other fighter designs of the Swedish company the Saab Draken has a unique appea­rance. The DrakenSaab 35 has double delta wings. The inner wings have a very large sweep angle, much larger than the outer wings. The air intakes are at the front of the inner wings. There is now a new page describing all the variants and how to distinguish them: https://www.aircraftrecognitionguide.com/saab-35-draken.

The AAC Model 44 Angel is a specialised airplane for operations in remote areas. It look very conventional except for the piston engines driving pusher props. Also typical are the wide cabin doors opening up and down. Learn more about recognising this plane on https://www.aircraftrecognitionguide.com/aac-44-angel.

Compared to the Cessna 525B Citation CJ3 (top), from which it is derived, the Cessna 525C Citation CJ4 is a bit longer, but has fewer cabin windows: five on the left side and six on the right side with a larger distance between the first two windows than the others. Also the cockpit front windows are a bit smaller, having the same height as the side windows. Finally, the wing has a small sweep angle.

Especially the wings and engines (and possibly the tail) might lead you to confuse the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter (top) and the Ilyushin Il-76 (bottom). However, the Il-76 has a glass nose and many more wheels on the landing gear (twenty instead of ten). Also the fuselage is wider. So in the end keeping them apart is not that difficult!

The L-39ZA is the dedicated light attack version of the Albatros, compared here with the L-39C basic trainer. This variant has two pylons under each wing (L-39C one or none), and in addition a gun pod under the front fuselage. This gun pod can in principle be removed, but this is hardly done.