First question: Is there an intact version of this plane somewhere in the game? Cuz it's awesome and I want to walk through it!

Second Question: I can feel in my bones that the flight recorder is a quest item. where do I get the quest?

It's not - just color, like the runaway tape or the Wicked Shipping tape. But I hit up 1981 every couple of game days - lots of loot and locks to pick, plus almost always there are two groups of NPCs duking it out. Sit tight, kill the winners, clean up. Also, free combat shotty under the cockpit.

I would have loved to have seen an intact plane. The lounge looked amazing.

There's the overpass with the Gunner's fort on top of it too for some more loot.