Getting component of inherited class

Unity Engine
1

I have an airplane and a component on it PlayerAirplane. PlayerAirplane is inherited from base class Airplane. On another game object I have another script that is trying to access the airplane component on airplane game object.
To access that component I would like to use its base class like:

airplaneComponent = (Airplane)airplane.GetComponent(“Airplane”);

I wonder will this work ? And if not how to make it to work ?
Airplane component is not directly located on airplane game object but its inherited class PlayerAirplane is.

2 
airplaneComponent = (PlayerAirplane)airplane.GetComponent("Airplane"); //Unsafe (May cause cast errors)
//or
airplaneComponent = (airplane.GetComponent("Airplane") as PlayerAirplane);
if (airplaneComponent == null)
   Return;
//or
airplaneComponent = (Airplane)airplane.GetComponent("Airplane");
if (airplaneComponent is PlayerAirplane)
{
   //Do stuff
}
3

Yea, but what if airplane game object has no Airplane component on it but only PlayerAirplane. Will these line of code return null ?

4

I just saw, you used:

airplane.GetComponent(“Airplane”) as PlayerAirplane

but I want the opposite way and also I don’t want to use inherited class in quotes. In the other script that is accessing it has only defined:

Airplane airplaneComponent;

5

Ah, I see, I think (but not sure) that you’re able to use if (var.GetType().BaseType() == typeof(type)) otherwise use not equal with the same samples above;

airplaneComponent = (Airplane)airplane.GetComponent("Airplane");

if (!(airplaneComponent is PlayerAirplane))

{

   //Do stuff

}

Edit:

You could also use an additional class to differ between them (may make it easier later);

Abstract Class Airplane : MonoBehavior { }

Class PlayerAirplane : Airplane { }

Class ComputerAirplane : Airplane { }