The Airbus a320 or most notably the A320-200 is still the only plane I have boarded since we started this blog, I’ve been on other planes before and on other Airlines but I was too young to remember or probably wasn’t aware enough but I used to remember my knees wouldn’t touch the front seat maybe I was smaller or probably because I was with Mom, but now it’s economy all the way, I miss first class I would complain because of the Airline food but now Cup Noodles is a luxury I can’t afford not even salted peanuts, back then for me, every plane that had 4 engines was a Boeing 747, but right now, I’d probably make a weird look at someone who called an A380 ,a 747, I’m no aviation expert by the way but telling the difference between the two should be easy, stares at A380 scrawled on the side but who could forget the Queen of skies the Boeing 747.
We’ve been on three different Carriers and virtually all the planes we have been on were the A320-200 and it comes to no surprise since the A320 family is the favorite for short-medium haul routes so it’s only natural to have a dedicated page to the Plane we love.
The A320 is Basically a family of four, The A318/A319/A320 and A321 with the A318 the shortest whilst the A321 the longest. All four are classified as short-medium range, narrow body twin engine jets and typically has a 3×3 seating arrangement. Currently the A320-200 is classified into two types, the A320-200 ceo for “current engine options” and the A320-200neo for “new engine options.” How do you tell them apart? well you can roughly tell them apart from the outside by it’s engines, they are visibly larger. You can also roughly tell them by their wingtip fence or winglets or as airbus affectionately calls the one on the A320neo “sharklets”. We’ll they are not sharks attached to the wing tips and they are not shark fins taped to it either.
On the A320neo the wingtip fence , they are not there just to advertise the airline’s website they are also there to increase the aircraft’s efficiency to save fuel, less fuel consumed per flight means cheaper tickets.
The newer A320-200 neo are outfitted with the sharklets. Older A320’s can be retrofitted like the Cebu Pacific A320 we were on from Cebu to Singapore.
The pictures shows our plane’s sharklets as compared to the Silkair’s A319 wingtip fence. Note the visible size difference of the A319 and A320 is apparent even from my vantage point.
One of the applications is that Sharklets reduce the vortex winds produces on the wingtips when the plane takes, this means that the time difference between A320 take off’s are reduced hence lesser chance of flight delays, yeay.
and don’t forget to wear your seatbelts at all times when seated even when the seat belt lights are off.
So Travel Wanderously….
By: Ishmael Fusilero
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