Good morning.. Have you checked out the live radar feed thingys? Its been a while since i last looked at em, but was very interesting. There was one for JFK area and LAX, there a few minits behind the audio feeds, but still very interesting.... I`d find you a link, but I`d only be googling it myself.... I think they were set so people could find out what a/c just woke them up, search "noise abatement".
But you cant beat a scanner though... Theres loads of cheap ones around if you look... I got mine for 50p at a car boot sale cause it didnt have a battery or charger.
Also there is a vid on you tube that tells you how to hack a normal FM reciever so you can pick up some of the airband. I`ve not tried it but am fairly convinsed its not a fake.