At present most of the aircraft recognitions rely on sample database,which leads to poor accuracy for aircraft outside the database.The problems of feature selection and extraction for aircraft in optical image were studied through analyzing the principle of the methods commonly used in pattern recognition.Extracting method for five recognition features based on human way of thinking and the characteristic of aircraft in optical image was proposed.Fuzzy pattern recognition was applied in the aircraft recognition.Experimental results show that the method can accomplish aircraft recognition with high accuracy.