Expert: Paul Soderman - 11/28/2007

Question
Hello!! Sir,
           My question to you is ,,what is the significance behind the naming of different aircrafts??....like eg.B-747,A-380 or A-340.B-737-700?? or MD-11,DC-10..etc! has it something to do with the angle of incidence?? ..or anything else regarding the aircraft? ....

Answer
It is mostly marketing.  B stands for Boeing (it used to stand for bomber), A stands for Aerospatial, MD stands for McDonnel-Douglas, but the numbers are just numbers that stick in your mind.  No one picks 13 or 66 or 01, but the numbers that are chosen are just numbers that sound good for some reason.  The popular trend is to have the first number be in the hundreds, and the second number signifies a variation or upgrade of the aircraft type (i.e., 747-100, 747-200).

Paul