Too late to edit the comment, but here's the article describing some more of what I learned: https://entropicthoughts.com/sidescrolling-flight-simulator

What's not mentioned in that article is that a couple months later I tried switching from modeling the plane as a point to modeling it as two separate wings attached by a rigid stick. It was a nightmare to get into a shape that played well, though I'm sure someone more skilled than I would be able to do it.