Whether you are traveling medium or long haul, you have probably seen these numbers on the fuselage of your plane or when booking your ticket: A320, A350, B737, B777... Even if you are new to aviation, a point may interest the curious: why the names of Airbus aircraft begin with a 3 and why Boeing only swears by the 7 to name its aircraft? It's all about nomenclature.
To understand the link between
Airbus
and the number 3, we have to go back to 1972. That year, the European manufacturer flew its first plane, the A300, a reference to the maximum number of passengers it could accommodate. Subsequently, Airbus added around ten to each new family of aircraft: the A310 entered service in 1978, the A320 in 1987, the A330 in 1994 and the A340 in 1993. One of the reasons for which we go directly from the A340 to the A380 is that the super jumbo was aimed at the Asian market, where the number 8 is a lucky charm. Another explanation: Airbus wanted to reserve the numberings between A350 and A370 for its future intermediate-sized aircraft. Thus, the A350 was introduced in 2015, eight years after the A380.
The A318, A319 and A321 single-aisle aircraft are the exception to the rule because their design is close to that of the A320. These models differ from each other mainly in their capacity and therefore in their size and mass. Another exception: the A220. The aircraft with a capacity of 120 to 160 seats was first marketed by the Canadian Bombardier under the name CS100; it took the name A220 when the program was bought by Airbus in 2020.
The 777, jackpot for Boeing
At
Boeing
, the hundreds digit designates the sector of activity of the American company. Because before designing commercial aircraft (designated by the code 700), Boeing had specialized since its creation in 1916 in propeller planes (code 300) and military (400), engines (500) or aerospace ( 600). Commercial jet aircraft adopted the 700 code in 1958 when the first of them, the 707, took flight for the first time. Then were born the 717, the 727, the 737 and so on until the most recent, the 787, nicknamed “Dreamliner”.
If the second number chronologically designates the model of the series, the last number is identical to the first simply to create symmetry and be more memorable. We can also see a superstition around the number seven, reputed to be lucky. And for good reason, the 777 made Boeing's fortune by being the best-selling wide-body aircraft in history.
Comac
, the Chinese aircraft manufacturer that wants to compete with the historic duopoly, has made 9 its favorite number, as indicated by the name of its only aircraft, the C919 (which currently only flies in China). The letter C refers to China. The 9 is a symbol of eternity: the number has the same pronunciation (“jiŭ”) as the term “long duration”. Finally, 19 designates the passenger capacity in tens, or 190 seats. The company is already working on its first wide-body aircraft which will be named C929. If you've been following along, you'll guess why.
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