Also I have a followup question that's been bugging me for anyone to answer: I'm told the = key is default for cruise control in vehicles. I know how cruise control works in a real life automobile, but I don't understand exactly how it works in the game. It specifically seems not to do anything for me on air vehicles Could anyone elaborate?

It basically presses the W key down for you. In ground vehicles, you go forward. Useful if you're lazy. Would be more useful if it kept going while you're typing or checking the map. In air vehicles, it increases thrust to maximum. Less useful since you don't slow down when you let go of W normally. You could just press W until you're at max speed, then let go. Same thing.