This game was so fun. I think there's a lot of unexplored game design in this style of 2d aviation.
The multiplayer game Altitude was a good modern example.
Lufteauser is a bigger space & higher motion, but has hit some good vibes for me, in this zone. Single player.
We were always begging the daycare to let us play this. Very solid.
Highfleet is nice.
We had an awesome split screen dogfighting game on a Win98 PC where everyone had a Spitfire-like plane and tried to take the others down. You could land at your base and heal etc. Super fun. I think it was called Iron Birds? Don't think I've found it since.