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I've been perplexed as to how to control all my planes in the late game, so I just spent some time playing with it and learned some good techniques and some things not to do. The best way I found to order all your planes to go to a particular spot is to select the airbase which is home to the planes, then press R (for rally point) and left click the location on the map. All planes from that base will head to that point, regardless of if they are currently in the air, on the ground and ready, or on the ground and refueling. Newly constructed planes from the base will also go to that point. Unfortunately this approach does not let you differentiate between fighters and bombers if both happen to be at the same base, so I suggest you keep your fighter airbases and bomber airbases separate, or target a general area instead of a specific building (see below on targetting).
There are several things I learned not to do. Alt-F and Alt-B, despite what the popup help says, do not select all fighters or bombers from the base. Instead, they select all planes sitting at the base ready. If your planes are already in the air, or refueling, Alt-F and Alt-B don't select them. Another thing not to do is to select one of the planes in the air and press Home. This will normally select all units anywhere of that type, but in this case it only selects planes currently in the air, not ones sitting at a base ready or refueling. Plus Home will select planes from multiple bases, which makes it hard to stay organized. Finally, selecting the airbase and right-clicking is not good. For most other buildings, right-clicking is the same as setting the rally point. But with airbases, right clicking will only order planes currently on the ground ready to go to the point. If no planes are ready, it seems to order the last plane or planes directed by a right click. Bottom line - pressing R and left clicking is the way to go if you want to make sure you order all planes at a base to go somewhere.
Regarding targets, bombers will attack all buildings near the rally point spot until they run out of fuel at which point they return to the base. If there are no buildings they will circle the spot until they run out of fuel. However in my tests they never attacked ground units on their own, even if ground units were right there. If you specifically selected a bomber and ordered it to attack a ground unit, it would. But these attacks were extremely ineffective. So bottom line, don't use bombers on ground units.
Fighters, on the other hand, will attack ground units and are pretty good at it. Fighters will attack whatever you target them on, and then search for additional targets. So they will attack buildings if that is the target, but they are not good at it so you shouldn't do this. Fighters will not attack buildings on their own unless you specifically tell them to, so even if there are no other targets in the area they will not attack buildings.
So the bottom line on targetting: if you have an airbase with all bombers, use the rally point to target the specific building you want. After the bombers destroy that building they will continue on to nearby buildings. If you have an airbase with all fighters, use the rally point to target a general area where enemy ground troops are. The fighters will come to the area and attack any ground troops they see. If you want your fighters to protect your bombers, don't target the same building as the bombers. Instead, set the rally point on a general spot near where the bombers are going. This is also the best bet if you have an airbase with mixed fighters and bombers. Set the rally point on a general spot. The bombers will go after nearby buildings, while the fighters attack nearby planes and ground units.
There are several things I learned not to do. Alt-F and Alt-B, despite what the popup help says, do not select all fighters or bombers from the base. Instead, they select all planes sitting at the base ready. If your planes are already in the air, or refueling, Alt-F and Alt-B don't select them. Another thing not to do is to select one of the planes in the air and press Home. This will normally select all units anywhere of that type, but in this case it only selects planes currently in the air, not ones sitting at a base ready or refueling. Plus Home will select planes from multiple bases, which makes it hard to stay organized. Finally, selecting the airbase and right-clicking is not good. For most other buildings, right-clicking is the same as setting the rally point. But with airbases, right clicking will only order planes currently on the ground ready to go to the point. If no planes are ready, it seems to order the last plane or planes directed by a right click. Bottom line - pressing R and left clicking is the way to go if you want to make sure you order all planes at a base to go somewhere.
Regarding targets, bombers will attack all buildings near the rally point spot until they run out of fuel at which point they return to the base. If there are no buildings they will circle the spot until they run out of fuel. However in my tests they never attacked ground units on their own, even if ground units were right there. If you specifically selected a bomber and ordered it to attack a ground unit, it would. But these attacks were extremely ineffective. So bottom line, don't use bombers on ground units.
Fighters, on the other hand, will attack ground units and are pretty good at it. Fighters will attack whatever you target them on, and then search for additional targets. So they will attack buildings if that is the target, but they are not good at it so you shouldn't do this. Fighters will not attack buildings on their own unless you specifically tell them to, so even if there are no other targets in the area they will not attack buildings.
So the bottom line on targetting: if you have an airbase with all bombers, use the rally point to target the specific building you want. After the bombers destroy that building they will continue on to nearby buildings. If you have an airbase with all fighters, use the rally point to target a general area where enemy ground troops are. The fighters will come to the area and attack any ground troops they see. If you want your fighters to protect your bombers, don't target the same building as the bombers. Instead, set the rally point on a general spot near where the bombers are going. This is also the best bet if you have an airbase with mixed fighters and bombers. Set the rally point on a general spot. The bombers will go after nearby buildings, while the fighters attack nearby planes and ground units.
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