A well-known blogger will help us answer this question, who provided an interesting story about the differences between these two aircraft.
Every self-respecting traveler should know the difference between a Boeing and an Airbus! This is the alphabet of all those who fly, or rather its first two letters “A” and “B”. For some reason, everyone can distinguish a BMW from a Mercedes, but in the vast majority of cases the situation with airplanes is very bad. Today we will try to correct this shortcoming, 10 simple but expressive differences between aircraft that are so similar at first glance. Even if you don’t care about flying, such basic knowledge will simply broaden your horizons a little and help you while away the wait at the window at the airport, trying to identify the model of this or that aircraft.
But I’ll start with a small but important clarification... There is no such word in Russian as “Airbus”! In English transcription, the name of the Airbus company should be pronounced as “Airbus”, at first it’s a little unusual, but that’s how it’s correct!
In this article, I will look at the main visual differences between the Airbus A320 and the Boeing 737. It is these two aircraft models and their modifications that are the most popular in the world; they are the ones we fly most often. From short one-hour flights to six to seven hour flights over significant distances.
The Airbus A320 family has been in production since 1988, and currently more than 5,400 copies have been produced. Includes models A318, A319, A320, A321, A320-neo.
The Boeing 737 family is the world's most popular narrow-body jet passenger aircraft. More than 7,400 aircraft were produced.
Includes: 737 Original (B737-100,-200), 737 Classic (-300,-400,-500), 737 - Next Generation (NG -600,-700,-800,-900), 737-MAX .
Difference No. 1 - Ground clearance - Airbus is higher than Boeing.
Airbus:
Boeing:
Difference No. 2 - The shape of the nose. Airbus's is round, Boeing's is sharp.
Airbus:
Boeing
Difference No. 3 - Tail shape. Boeing has a fork that gives a characteristic “kink” - the so-called. the transition is at an angle in the front part, Airbus does not have it, the tail is “smooth” on both sides.
Airbus:
Boeing:
Difference No. 4 - APU nozzle. Auxiliary power unit: Airbus's is elongated, while Boeing's is short and sloping. The APU nozzle is located behind the fork at the rear of the aircraft:
Three Airbuses and the farthest Boeing in the photo:
Difference No. 5 - Engines - on Airbus (front view) they are round, on Boeing they are flattened at the bottom.
Airbus:
Boeing, The air intakes of Classic and Next Generation aircraft engines have a non-circular shape. The engine units are located in the side bulges. This solution was called “hamsterisation”.
However, earlier Boeing models (Original generation) use engines of a different shape - thinner and more elongated. These are JT8D turbofan engines manufactured by Pratt&Whitney
Difference No. 6 - The side windows of the cabin: the Airbus has straight windows, the Boeing has angular windows at the bottom, sometimes with additional sections at the top.
The Airbus A320 is on the right (!) in this photo, the nose of the A330 is on the left in the background:
Boeing, additional windows above the windshield are borrowed from the Boeing 707. Their main task is to expand the viewing angle. With the improvement of avionics, windows have become redundant and are no longer installed, but they are still quite common:
Difference No. 7 - Chassis. Airbus has closed main strut niches, Boeing does not have them.
The Boeing 737 does not have main landing gear doors. The main landing gear is retracted into recesses in the center section of the aircraft, creating virtually no aerodynamic drag. If you watch the B737 take off while standing on the ground, it is easy to notice the black tire rings under the wings.
Difference No. 8 - Doors - on Airbus they move to the side, but on Boeing they swing open with a 180-degree turn.
Airbus:
Boeing:
Difference No. 9 - Winglets/Sharklets. On the Boeing 737 they are tall and long. Airbus has small ones shaped like birds.
Winglets on the B737 are a form of wing tip that reduces aerodynamic drag, allowing fuel consumption to be reduced by up to 5%. Winglets can be installed even on aircraft that were originally produced without them.
And the standard bird-shaped wingtip of Airbus is relatively small compared to Boeing:
However, in 2012, Sharklets began to be installed on Airbus. I have only seen them once, it is difficult to distinguish them visually from winglets: The third WizzAir-Ukraine aircraft, which the company accepted this year. Photo anorgasmus
Difference No. 10 - Strobes. Airbus has a double flash with a short pause, Boeing has a single flash without a pause.
These are just the main differences between the A320 and B737 families; wide-body long-haul airliners have slightly different differences, but some elements are identical and the patterns are the same.
And within each family, aircraft differ in passenger capacity on the inside and length on the outside, from the A318 to the A321 for Airbus.
A320:
A321:
And from B737-500 to I737-900 from Boeing with some reservations.
B737-700NG:
B737-800NG:
Source: alexcheban
