Well, I used to shoot with an old Canon A1 and some Vivitar Series one glass... Film and all that was expensive, but that's what made you a better shot. I didn't shoot for a long time, but then bought a Canon SX110is, and got some decent pics with that. I wanted something better but did not want to spend the $$ on a new digital full size system, so I bought a Panasonic FZ150.
So far, very nice pics, great zoom capabilities, and full 1080P hi-def video in h.264 or mpeg4 formats. I got Sony Vegas, so the h.264 is no problem to edit. This little FZ150 "bridge camera" is also easy to carry around because it is one compact unit, at least compared to a full size system. I got tired of carrying that set up a long time ago...
I'll be checking it's ability to shoot aircraft in a couple of weeks...