Alphazone From Poland, joined Nov 2010, 2 posts, RR: 0 Posted (2 years 5 months 5 days 3 hours ago) and read 2767 times:
When spotting, how can one tell apart pre-merger Delta and former Northwest 752s based on the exterior? Obviously, the registrations give it away, but are there any other differing traits?
MSPNWA From United States of America, joined Apr 2009, 1571 posts, RR: 4 Reply 1, posted (2 years 5 months 2 days 14 hours ago) and read 2676 times:
I don't believe you can't conclusively tell about half of the fleet from each other with a exterior trait larger than the reg #. However you can conclusively tell some subfleets apart from each rest. One major difference in 752s is in the exit doors. There's two types - one with 8 doors and no over-wing exits, and one with 6 doors and 4 over-wing exits. Here's my 90%-sure breakdown.
--if you see an aircraft with 8 doors and no winglets, you're seeing a PMNW 5500 series 757. They're all older (from the '80s), so they reportedly will never receive winglets. So unless Delta acquires another 752 with the same two traits, these aircraft will be set apart.
--if you see an aircraft with 8 doors AND winglets, you're seeing a PMDL ex-TWA 752. Delta is in the process of acquiring another used 752 with the same two traits (N624AG).
--if you see an aircraft with 6 doors, 4 over-wing exits and a small dome on top of the fuselage just forward of the U.S. flag, you're currently seeing a PMDL ex-song aircraft. I believe the dome is for the live TV onboard. I stress the word "currently" because as AVOD is installed on PMNW aircraft sometime in the future, this difference will no longer be valid if the system is the same.
I think that covers it, but with such a large fleet, and differences I may not know about, I wouldn't set it in stone. I believe the rest of the 752s all have the same door configuration (6 and 4), no TV dome, and random yes/no winglet installations.
KingFriday013 From United States of America, joined May 2007, 1277 posts, RR: 10 Reply 3, posted (2 years 4 months 1 week 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 2281 times:
Quoting Alphazone (Reply 2): Thanks, very helpful. So there are no other external differences between standard PMDL and 5600 series PMNW 752s?
I don't know if it's always the case, but a simple way is to look at the ship number -- rather than trying to figure out the entire registration, just look at the top of the tail or the nose gear doors. If it's 3 digits, it's PMDL, and if it's 4 digits, it's most likely PMNW (I think there are some that are also PMDL, but these may have been ex-Song aircraft). (Also, I could be completely wrong on all of this; this is mostly based on my own observations.)
By the way, the ex-Song aircraft config was renamed the "transcon" configuration after Song was reintegrated back into mainline, and is also referred to as the 75X.
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