You always want to leave some space in front of the Aircraft for it to fly into, it helps the composition and makes it appear more natural and pleasing to the eye if that makes sense.

Where as this one has the space in front, (but maybe just a little bit much) but it gives it a more natural pose that is more pleasing to the eye, and gives you the impression it has somewhere to move too.

You have a very fair point but a word of warning… Such compositions will result in a rejection from sites like JP and how you compose your images really depends on what kind of photography you want to do. If you’re shooting purely for your own enjoyment then you can compose the image however you like and space in front of the aircraft can indeed look pleasing, but if you’re wanting to upload to aviation photography sites like JP then the composition will generally need to be a little more balanced, i.e. the aircraft needs to be sitting centrally in the frame because the aircraft is the sole subject of the image; you’re shooting a specific ‘subject’ as opposed to a ‘scene’.

It isn’t a case of right or wrong here, just purely a case of which approach you want to take because they are quite different disciplines that don’t necessarily go hand in hand. 🙂

Paul