I have been looking at the Panasonic.
It is image stabilised and has a Carl Zeiss lens.
It is excellent value for money and I will buy one in the next couple of weeks.
I have had a play with one in a decent shop where you could actually take it outside and use it and was impressed.
Have you considered the Canon EOS300D?
More money buy for photographing aircraft you can fit a nice big lens and a polarising filter as well as a grad grey filter.