The best thing to do is contrast vs colors.

Solid darker colors on the bottom of the plane with white stripes, and the top can be any design...but should have lots of contrast.
The best thing to do is lighter colors on the inside, and darker colors on the wingtips, and horizontal and vertical tips.

There are also patterns that help with recognition. Checkerboard, stripes, stars, etc. Just make sure to make them large enough to distinguish at a distance. If you make the checkerboard too small, when it gets far away it just fuzzes out.