I'm all for this as long as HTC doesn't tax too much of my income.
Also the enemy has to leave you an engine and two wings.
Tail and cockpit is optional?
How about an arena that is date dependent - kinda like WWII Online was. And you pick a side, join a historical squadron, and as the dates advance and new planes get introduced, your CO/DCO gets to approve your new ride or continue with your existing one? For example, if I was in a JG and flying the Frank, I'm not 100% sure I would pick the G2 or a FW-190A5.
We've been capturing the service dates of all vehicles/aircraft here in Aces High - I started that process back in 2002 and now we know when we would introduce them and retire others, including operational areas. The idea would be that your squad could also pick custom aircraft colouring - nose, tail, fuselage etc in addition to the squad logo. Or you could limit the custom colouring to how well your squadron is doing for each tour? Noses for 50 squad kills, tail and nose for 200, entire aircraft requires 1000 kills.
Some food for thought...