I have no idea what it would take to get this done on this forum/ website...
This is what I think would work well for what we're alking about : http://www.hiroboy.com/gallery/
(EDIT- The Hiroboy gallery seems to be cranky, it was working when I coppied the link to paste it in this entry, but now it wont load; I guess try it later if it doesn't work when you try it.)
Plenty of sections and subsections could be created, it looks fairly cutomizable, and if you browse around it, there are some fairly large files on there.
As Milairjunkie said, and it applies to me also, we all have images saved from the web, so, regarding the copyright issue, I would think as long as we don't alter the images or try to generate/ recieve any money from their use, I would think we'd be in the clear, but I'm not a lawyer...
Speaking of reference material ! For all the aircraft builders out there, HOLY COW, look at this link : http://www.af.mil/photos/index.asp?galleryID=2 Be sure to notice in the column on the right, under Aircraft, there are listings for all types, then pick your craft, say, F-15, there are about 31 pages, each with approx. 15 images, all available to be downloaded, (from the USAF) most of which are VERY large sized and good resolution. For example : F-15 (3000 x 1996 pix)
That's my 2 cents for now, time to sit at the work bench !