Criminy cripes. You wouldn't believe the technology that comes out of Hong Kong for cheap. But electric is the way to go these days. Lithium-ion batteries store enough energy to make the mess and noise of nitromethane glow plug engines almost (not completely) obsolete. There are two stroke gasoline engines and four strokes available if you have the bucks. There are turbine engines the size of gatorade bottles if you have money to burn.
I like electric, ducted fan, vectored thrust, the whole thing comes in one box (a big box) and you supply the radio and lipo battery. Even the servos and retract gear are installed.
Some starting points:
nitroplanes.com
xheli.com
rc-castle.com
hobby-lobby.com
There are a million of them. But the best starting point is rcgroups.com.