How to distinguish aircraft types?

I have been an avid enthusiast of airline industry for about 15 years. I am thrilled by almost all aspects of aviation. From mechanical technicality of flight itself such as engine thrust / aerodynamics / navigation control to airline operation in both passenger and freight markets worldwide. Even just watching airplanes flying or taxing is what I can do for hours everyday.

Interest brought in curiosity. I kept searching for and learning about everything of anything aviation. Here is one demonstration of years-long self study: a guide to discriminating aircraft types. The initial version of the slides was compiled 8.5 years ago for a friend looking for help. Today I post the revised version including newer aircrafts like Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus 350. You can download PDF here.

Note that no airline appears twice. I deliberately chose only one picture for each airline so that as many different airlines are included as possible. As the watermarks indicate, most of the images were imported from airliners.net, a popular website for high quality aircraft photos. They do not keep the photos from being used for hobby purpose. Nonetheless I appreciate for the efforts of all the photographers and do acknowledge the generosity. The above image is one of them, showing Boeing 777-200, my favorite.

select vs. selected

I was probably no different from you. I believed selected is the only grammatically correct adjective for publication whereas select is not. I observed, however, that 'select publication' are frequently used in CVs (curriculum vitae) of numerous native English speaking professors of top ranking universities. It must not be a collective coincidence of mistakes. In fact, according to this article it turns out that both are correct. You can use either, depending on context. "select" is best suited for cases were the choices are made based upon excellence or superiority, while "selected" is better when the choices are made based upon neutral criteria such as years in which a product was manufactured. Select is not only correct for publication but is far more appropriate than selected if you would like to highlight top papers. There could be cases of course where you meant selected publication. But don't be tempted to feel incorrect when you see select publication in my CV. That is precisely what I intended to mean. You're wrong, like I was.

Enigmatic

One of the moments I truly enjoy. I am trying to figure out the underlying logic for Project Euler problem #248, scribbling on a restaurant napkin while waiting for food. Specifically, analyzing numbers for which phi(n) = 120 (5!), which I obtained with a brief brute-force code.

Joy of learning, power of simple observation.

We are surrounded by myriad of things. There are two types of people; some wonder why things are the way they are, some other people don't pay attention to or do not even recognize. I am strongly of the former type.

Here's an example. New York city subway routes are mixed-labeled, using both numbers and alphabets. Have you wondered why? Have you given a second of thought about the mixed labeling scheme, instead of just focusing on the routes you need to take? Also, not all letters are used; letters A through F are used, G through I absent, J through N used except for K, etc. Furthermore, route color code makes the map farther from being intuitive or sequential. If you were to design a labeling scheme, the most natural way would be using A to Z sequentially, or grouping sequential letters with the same color. You can consider double digit numeric codes, or abbreviation representing a region (like NYC bus routes M48 / Q70 / Bx33 for instance). NYC subway employs none of those obvious labeling system. In fact I haven't really wondered the reason either for years until recently, although I was aware of the mixed labeling scheme itself as most of people would (maybe not?).

One simplistic answer is because NYC subway has more than 26 routes. Alphabet alone can't cover the entire routes. But the real reason has much more complicated historical background. Today the NYC subway is operated by a single authority - MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority). But in the past a number of private companies operated parts of the subway system with their own routes nomenclature. For efficient operation after operator consolidation, the routes were re-labeled into a more systematic set. In short, IRT(Interborough Rapid Transit)-operated routes bear numbers in present, and the routes by other two major operators have alphabet labels. (read this Wikipedia article for detailed evolution history) Interesting?

More often than not, a mere curiosity into small easy-to-neglect detail reveal a surprising wealth of story behind the scene and time. The joy of learning, the power of persistent desire to know.