I am so sorry you are stressed about the idea of flying. I can sort of relate--my oldest does not have an autism diagnosis, but has a lot of special needs and some similarities to autism. He was nonverbal until he was 4 or 4.5. He is 13 now and just loves Disney...world and land. We took him on his first trip when he was about 4.5 to WDW. I have to say I probably should have been nervous about that plane trip, but we also had DD who was then 2.5 so I was more concerned with her since she was younger. I packed a lot of distractions for both of them including snacks, books, and toys. There were no iPads then but that could definitely help you now. And having headphones to serve 2 purposes--blocking out the outside noise and stimuli from him, and of course keeping everyone else from having to hear whatever is playing on the iPad. Don't put too much pressure on yourself, he doesn't have to be a perfect angel on the plane, other people should understand and be sympathetic, and if they're not, who cares, you'll never see them again after the flight!