shoutout to my peeps too vintage to make the list
Here are some more vintage suggestions: 1964: XB-70 Valkyrie 1965: Super Guppy 1966: M2-F2 1967: Mini Guppy 1968: C-5 Galaxy 1969: Concorde 1970: F-14 Tomcat 1971: VAK 191B 1972: A-10 Thunderbolt II 1973: AVE Mizar 1974: B-1 Lancer 1975: YC-15 1976: YC-14 1977: Shuttle Carrier Aircraft 1978: F/A-18 Hornet 1979: MD-80 (sorry 1979ers)
Yeah yeah fsk you I'm old. Here are the coolest from MY year, 1968: Thurston Teal. I have a real affinity for flying boats with high-mounted pusher motors: MIL V-12. Because the Soviets had REALLY good drugs and thought, "Wait... Sergey... wait... check this out... imagine a helicopter, right? Right?... BUT TWO OF THEM... with the fuselage of a passenger plane....! EA-B6 Prowler Of course, in all honesty, the coolest plane is either Grumman's Prowler: ... or the C5A Galaxy: Yeah. The Galaxy wins. And woah... I just discovered this little snippet that happened in 1968, at this cool site: He was flying one of these: 
April 5 — To protest the lack of an aerial display to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Air Force four days earlier and to demonstrate against the government of Prime Minister Harold Wilson, Flight Lieutenant Alan Pollock of the RAF's No. 1(F) Squadron makes an unauthorized display flight in a Hawker Hunter during which he "beats up" (i.e., buzzes) several RAF airfields and flies low over London, where circles the Houses of Parliament, dips his wings to the Royal Air Force Memorial, and flies under the top span of Tower Bridge, becoming the first person to fly under the bridge's upper span in a jet aircraft. He is arrested upon his return to base.
Saab gets the short shrift all the way through. the Draken was basically the first blended-wing body aircraft and was designed to be so overpowered that it could take off from a quarter-mile-long two-lane road. I have no idea how the Viggen would have done in operational combat, but much like the S-Tank I simply don't give a shit. Some manufacturers flirted with canards; Saab started a cult around them. I also love that they were designed using the Ikea philosophy of maintenance whereby a conscript ground crew of 5 could keep it in the air.
My dad hit me with this one whenever I built anything plastic. "real" models were those that could fly, dammit, but god help you if you ever actually tried to because in general you spent a week using Elmer's to painstakingly string runners between bulkheads, then another three days carefully plastering tissue paper over spars, and then you'd throw it into a cactus and be done. WEEKS. WEEKS he spent on that thing, monopolizing the dinner table every night, and then he pussied out and didn't even skin it. OR PUT THE MISSILES ON. These took up room in my closet. He'd open 'em up every now and then, stare at them, and put them back. As an objet d'art they were aight but it's like... "I build you a goddamn P38 every year, dad, and including the dry brushing and decals it's like three evenings"
I remember those gliders. Did you have the ones with a plastic propeller and rubber band, too?