Aircraft is plural

Indeed there are differences in English. My previous CEO was from the UK.  
Microsoft is a big company. 
my CEO

Microsoft are a big company. 

Both are entirely acceptable. It could be a difference between the Queen's English, or " American".

Bill

I haven't heard that word yet, been lucky I guess.

In all the squadrons I have been in or had around me, aircraft was the word used regardless of how many ship were involved, from one to an entire wing.  Almost nobody used the word airplane either although "ship/ships" was common;y used also.  I have no idea where that started.

That sounds about normal for the "experts" they regularly have on documentaries like that.  I have a really hard time watching those shows all the way through, since they're so full of errors.