Odd question, I know, but what else is this place for?
I’ve heard that you can tell some planes apart from each other by sound - the distinctive engines of the Hornet are supposed to be distinguishable from those of Tomcats and F-15s to those who have been around those aircraft a lot. But what about commercial airliners?
I live a few miles from a major airport now, and there are definitely times of day when the engines sound louder/different; but I’m not sure if that might have to do with flight paths, prevailing winds, atmospheric conditions, competing sounds from the city, or the timing of when particular wide-body large airliners tend to take off and land during the day.
So that led me to the question - are there people out there who can hear an A380 or a 747 and know what it is without seeing it?
I can, mostly, but context is the key. I can differentiate by sounds of particular engines, and various models thereof ( Rolls Royce, GE, P&W, CFM, IAE2500 etc ) and by knowing what A/C type uses what engine in what A/C is used in the local airport: thus, the A/C basic type.
I know that people who are really good can tell this engine (piston or jet) from that engine. I don’t think it’s possible to know whether the engine is on a Boeing or Airbus, though.
Sounds like there’s folks who can discern different engine noise, and from context can glean what aircraft it might be! Fascinating. I may have to spend some time on flightradar24 to figure out what I’m hearing. Thanks for all the responses!
I could easily tell what airplane was flying over by sound when I was young, but this was in the 50s when everything was piston engine powered (and my hearing was sharper), we lived near a busy airport, and my father was an air traffic controller so I was well versed in identifying airplanes.
I can tell many helicopters by the sounds, but different number of main and tail rotor blades makes it easier than commercial jets. A lot of them use the same engines, so you’d have to have a lot of listening time to be able to differentiate the planes just by sound, though I suspect it could be done.
I live under the approach path for a civil airport that has several warbirds that fly out of it regularly. There’s no confusing a Cessna with a Texan with a B-17.
