I bought a digital camera and discovered the mic isnt as good as I thought. So I bought a quality mic and digital recorder. Then I designed and built a laser mic for recording sounds you cant get in any other way.
Finally I bought Adobe Audition and took a college level course (several actually) on how to use the equipment and program. Then the wife and I set upon traveling to places like England to record tanks at tankfest and so on.
Very few people actually record real airplanes for their sounds. Just so you know.