Air shows...an interesting photographic challenge. I have photographed quite a few now but strangely I find my keeper rate with images of aircraft in flight hasn't improved significantly over that time. I don't think my techniques are flawed after a bit of practice, but rather its the "risks" I take of trying to get it right for different subjects.
As with many forms of photography you make compromises to balance the different elements you want to achieve in a particular image and hope for the best in the fleeting moments you have to grab the shot.
For air to air I am almost always using Nikon's very nice 200-400mm F4 VR zoom. Optically its a great lens, with fast AFS focus motor and the useful optical stabilisation feature. Its a beast to hand hold for any period, especially with a pro-grade body attached...at least 5 kilos all-in and long too.
With the recent Nikon Pro bodies having such a brilliant auto ISO system, I now shoot air show action almost entirely on manual exposure mode, setting the combination of shutter speed and aperture I want and letting auto ISO work out the exposure. This is great because you know your aperture or shutter speed values don't change as you pan the lens or as the light changes.
With propeller planes and especially helicopters you need to be sympathetic to your subject by showing prop/rotor blur and therefore drop your shutter speed to levels where there is a real risk of getting camera/lens shake with the equivalent of 600mm of reach. For helos 1/200th or 1/250th sec is about the limit unless you want really silly-looking frozen rotors. VR certainly helps here but you still lose shots to motion blur.
Prop planes are a bit easier as I find a good starting point about 1/320th sec for those with slower props. For some like the Stearman biplanes used by Team Guinot and their wing walkers, you can actually get away with 1/800th or even 1/1000th sec as the prop rotates so fast the tips zing as they approach the speed of sound! Typically 1/400th or 1/500th works OK but experiment with each type to see if the result is pleasing. By compromising the shutter speed you are attempting to get a much better capture than one simply taken at a high shutter speed, but you get some losers.
For jets Its best to crank the shutter speed up as far as you can without getting the ISO to reach levels where grain and loss of detail spoils the shot. Ok unless you have a slow lens or the light is poor. I prefer to shoot jets at 1/1000th sec or even a bit more. You can get away with less if panning a jet on a flypast but if, as with the Typhoon above, its tearing right at you, you seriously need to freeze the action and hope the AF system copes with the closure rate.
Generally I try and shoot about a stop or even more below max aperture to get a bit of depth of field should focus be slightly off or there are several subjects in frame.
Light is often a problem...how many air show crowd lines look straight into the sun!? Try and position yourself so you are shooting away from the sun as much as possible...that way you will tend to avoid the black silhouette on a white sky image. Unless the light really is flattering on on the subject dial in some positive exposure compensation...again a compromise to reduce noise and underexposure but not to blow highlights.
Framing is a consideration...do you try and zoom in to fill the frame and thereby get the most pixels on target or zoom out and crop in later in processing? Shots like the Typhoon worked even though I really zoomed in to get a frame filler...but I lost a lot of clipped wings and noses too!
I think the more practiced I get, the more risks I take to get that great shot, so the keeper rate doesn't improve that much. When I become really competent I'll let you know the secret!!
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