HectorD

There is currently no way to modify a model of an airplane without the source files.

I agree that there aren't many tutorials for aircraft design. With that said, its not critical. If you know the basics of your software, you can just about model anything with enough patience. There are many tutorials that demonstrate how to use 3ds max on youtube. There are also many tutorials on the web that demonstrate how to model cars and boats which use the same hard surface modeling techniques as airplanes. I also recommend you check out fsdeveloper.com. They have a larger community of developers there that could help you out. With that said, nothing beats practice, reading or watching tutorials only takes you so far. Once you get comfortable with the software, you can check out Mike James (http://www.mikejamesmedia.com/) who sells tutorials on modeling aircraft on a program called modo. They are high polygon but the basics are generally the same though they are not for beginners. One last thing, you need to realize that even though it might look easy, modeling a cessna 207 is much harder than modeling an airliner. Small planes require more detail and have more complex shapes. Airliners are basically tubes with wings. I would suggest you start with a small jet, something perhaps made out of composites like the BD-5. cheers. PS: don't bother learning how to make 3d gauges at this point. Its not as hard as you might think, but go step by step. Doing otherwise will probably frustrate you and make you rage quit.