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I had some trouble with that myself until I started working at an airport and seeing them every day.

One of the most obvious things to look for is the number and placement of the engines, though most new airliners since the '80s have had two wing-mounted engines, so that isn't always helpful. Some of the other features to looks for are number of wheels, shape of nose, cockpit windows, and tailcone, the arrangement of exit doors, and the winglets.

For example

The A320 (left) has side cockpit windows that slope down a bit, but then the rearmost window is flat on the bottom. On the 737 (right) both windows slope down and join at a point. The cockpit window design is pretty standardized across most Airbusses and Boeings (excepting the A350 and 787). The A320 Also has a rounder nose, smaller winglets (newer versions have bigger ones though), and a tailcone that extends behind the stabilizers. The 737 has a pointier nose, often but not always has scimitar winglets that extend downwards, and has a tailcone that's almost flush with the stabilizers (though on the MAX it extends back more).

If I made a writeup like this for every common airliner we'd be here all day, but those are the sorts of features I generally look for.

For the specific variant, often a good clue is the exit doors.

The A319 has one overwing exit per side, the A320 has two, and the A321 forgoes overwing exits and instead has four full-sized doors.

people always say that internet spaces are americanised because the users are majority americans.

and i do always wonder how much of that is "there are actually a majority of usamericans" and how much is "usamerican cultural markers are a default for many online spaces, and non usamericans are often indistinguishable from usamericans unless you're actively looking".

so here's an incredibly unscientific poll reblog for reach or whatever

It started with someone listing "places with uncanny energy," like gas stations on a road trip, empty movie theaters, etc.

Then someone reblogged it and said those are called "liminal spaces," defining liminal as in-between, neither one thing nor another.

Tomorrow (July 4th, 2026) is the 10 year anniversary of the-crepes-of-wrath's comment, which:

Predates the 2020 spike in interest by four years

Predates the original backrooms post, and the the creation of r/liminalspaces by three years

Predates the earliest mention that KnowYourMeme attributes to Twitter by two years

I'm pretty sure this is the moment the term "liminal spaces" was attached to this sort of imagery, and it's TEN YEARS OLD TOMORROW!