Landing Gear as Aircraft I.D. “Field-Marks”?

Greetings,

Pardon the ex-birder terminology but I see our beloved commercial airliners as “big birds” after all … hence with identifiable “field-marks” of there own.

While spotting at JFK on May 6 I chanced across a trio of very helpful, visiting Britons who were aircraft spotters of the “European tradition” … i.e. they also “collected “their” sightings by aircraft registration numbers. [See my post of May 19 … “A Happy Encounter at JFK on May 6” in the “Spotting, Planning, and Review Forum.”] Their “Air-Britain” field manuals had pages upon pages of such numbers arranged by airline I believe … with most of them already red-marked as having been “collected.” They’ve been air spotters for 30 years or so.

Back to landing gears … they pointed out that the Boeing 777 can be differentiated from its stylistic look-alikes by landing gear configuration alone. The 777s had triple-wheel “sets” while the others had double-wheel sets. I believe the Airbus A340s also have triples … yes? I’m still learning so feel free to educate me further in this regard.

Are there other distinctive landing gear configurations to look out for as an aid in aircraft ground identification … or when on approach/taking off?

I’m just getting into this “sub-specialty” of our hobby so … I’m all ears for sighting tips … referrals to online reference sources … et al. Thanks.

Mike (shamrock838)