the -200, or -300, or -whatever is the particular variant of 727. They're all basically 727s but a little different. Sort of like the difference between a Civic EX and a Civic DX, and so on.
Cessna does their variant labeling with letters (172M, 172R, 172S, etc.), Piper does something similar to Boeing (PA28-180, PA28-201, etc.).
The tail number is just the aircraft's identifier, like a license plate. All registered aircraft are assigned one. The N at the beginning means it's registered as a civil aircraft in the US. A G at the beginning would mean UK, and I think C would be Canada.
The number N727NY is the aircraft's registration number....it has nothing to do with the type of airplane. All civilian aircraft...from small private planes to commercial jumbos, have a registration number. The N prefix denotes that the aircraft is of U.S. registry. By comparison, airplanes starting with C are from Canada. That's all you can tell about an aircraft's number...what country it is from.
With the number 727-200, the 200 means that the airplane belongs to a class of 727s that are bigger than the original 727-100s. Same with all airplanes. A 747-300 is a class of 747 that has about 500 seats. A 747-400 is the next size up and is 20 feet longer, carries more people, and has new generation of avionics on board.
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the -200, or -300, or -whatever is the particular variant of 727. They're all basically 727s but a little different. Sort of like the difference between a Civic EX and a Civic DX, and so on.
Cessna does their variant labeling with letters (172M, 172R, 172S, etc.), Piper does something similar to Boeing (PA28-180, PA28-201, etc.).
The tail number is just the aircraft's identifier, like a license plate. All registered aircraft are assigned one. The N at the beginning means it's registered as a civil aircraft in the US. A G at the beginning would mean UK, and I think C would be Canada.
The number N727NY is the aircraft's registration number....it has nothing to do with the type of airplane. All civilian aircraft...from small private planes to commercial jumbos, have a registration number. The N prefix denotes that the aircraft is of U.S. registry. By comparison, airplanes starting with C are from Canada. That's all you can tell about an aircraft's number...what country it is from.
With the number 727-200, the 200 means that the airplane belongs to a class of 727s that are bigger than the original 727-100s. Same with all airplanes. A 747-300 is a class of 747 that has about 500 seats. A 747-400 is the next size up and is 20 feet longer, carries more people, and has new generation of avionics on board.
The N-number is the registration, it has nothing to do with aircraft type and is usually totally arbitrary.
Some companies will put the aircraft type in the registration, this adds uniqueness and makes them easier to organize in dispatch.