The book is
Snow Crash. I've only read refrences to it while searching for the answer, but it seems like an excelent book.
This aircraft is puzzling me
It has two wheels in front and one in the back (fairly odd), the propelers seem really strange (at least to me) and it looks like it was a dual engine system (both propelers and jet engines). One can hardly see the wings of the darn thing... I'd say it's one of the predecesors of the famous SR-71 Blackbird but I've no idea what it could actually be.