My kids love planes, space, rocket launches and skyscrapers.  We can thankfully see all four from our windows.  I'm dying to get them a telescope to see better.  

Recommendations?

Very casual , no star viewing needed.

then get a spotting scope.     60x or 80x

With telescopes you are going to be dealing with mirrored or flipped images with your terrestrial viewing.  It may be possible to correct with 90degree adapters, but I've never tried it.



A 20-60x80 spotting scope would be good.  



Astronomical binoculars can be had for surprisingly cheap, and being able to use both eyes would be nice.  I've read mixed reviews on some of them though.



A quick look on amazon showed me a 12-125x88 Barska for $112.  cheap, but I'm sure it would do the job.



Also found a Celestron 52268 C90 mak spotting scope, which uses interchangeable telescope eyepieces and right-side up and non mirrored image.