How to Identify Light Aircraft Silhouettes

Listen to the plane as it flies overhead. In addition to looking at the plane, listening to the sound of the engine will tell you whether the plane is a jet or propeller driven.

Observe the wing design and the angle of the wing. Wings that are installed on the top of the fuselage like those on most Cessnas, including the 152, 172 and 182, feature struts that run from the bottom of the fuselage near the front of the cockpit to roughly the mid-point of the wings. Other Cessnas like the 310 have wings on the bottom of fuselage, and these models typically have dual engines.

Observe the pitch of the wings, typically propeller driven planes have wings that are perpendicular to the fuselage of the plane. Jet propelled aircraft have wings that are "swept" towards the back of the fuselage. The F-86 Sabre Jet was the first North American fighter jet to feature this design.

Observe the underside of the aircraft that is in the air and look for landing gear. Some civil aviation planes have retractable landing gear, while others have fixed three-wheel designs with main gear and either a nose or a tail wheel.

Look at the tail of the plane and observe the type of design that appears on the rear rudder and control surfaces. Older Beechcraft Bonanzas featured a distinctive "V" tail design which made the plane easy to identify. Float planes are also easily identifiable by the pontoons they use for water landings.

Write the information down in a notebook. If you are good at drawing, draw a sketch in the book. When you get home, look up the style of the airplane either online or in a reference book and write the name of the make and model in your notebook.