[Axgrinder]

I have played air combat games in both 1/72 and 1/144 scale and enjoy both for different reasons. For large scale tactical games like "Bridges at Toko Ri" I prefer 1/144 because you use dozens of jets and cover large areas of terrain to play the game correctly. The game centers more on moving large groups of jet squadrons and not on one to one combat. WWI games
like "Richthofen's War" would also play well at 1/144 because you can fly whole squads and do long trench recon, strafing and bombing missions. The games look cool just due to the numbers of planes on the table!

For games like Canvas Eagles, Blue Max and Fokker Fodder people like using 1/72. These games are all about one-on-one dogfighting so you normally don't cover large areas. The rules in these games play as if you have already spotted the opposing planes and combat is inevitable. Planes are turning and twisting to gain position and not crossing miles of terrain to get to a target.
We play Blue Max on the old "Battle Masters" vinyl mats. They have colorful terrain and a hex grid already printed on them. (there are pics of Fokker Fodder and Blue Max in the miniatures post) Due to the "tailing" rules in Canvas Eagles and Blue Max you can only fly one plane at a time anyway so if you have friends that play the game with you each person only needs to build one or two 1/72 modes. (One each of different nations) You can build more if you like to fly a different type of plane each time. The games played in 1/72 are visually stunning and this tends to add depth to the games.

As far as storage goes, if you only build a couple of planes in 1/72 or a bunch in 1/144 you will end up using about the same amount of space. As far as price, I noticed 1/72 and 1/144 models cost about the same, within the $10 range. You can still find 1/72 models at hobby shops and most 1/144's need to be bought online. 1/72's are easier to paint but if you don't like to paint 1/144's are the way to go.

Right now I am playing Blue Max (with Tom O and others) and enjoy the game both for its one-on-one play and the visual athstetics.

Good luck on the choice of game that you end up going with. Keep us updated.