Bongodriver, you should probably PM ATAG_Bliss and ask to be added to the mod team
As far as plugins go, I think Blender is the preferred modelling software atm. Of course it isn't hard to import a model into blender and then export it to max.
And I believe max was what 1c was using if I'm remembering some old screenshots Oleg posted correctly.
Oh, and there are some very good tutorials on how to use blender to make an aircraft. The flight gear wiki has a good selection of resources;
http://wiki.flightgear.org/Blender
And you can find good video tutorials on youtube too, if a more visual style of learning is your thing.
But I'd suggest starting off on something a bit simpler, like a house or even a simple piece of armor.
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