But would that same airplane accelerate at a high speed in outer space, at the same speed as a smaller plane would with that smaller engine that was faster on earth?
No. F=ma
a = constant (in your scenario)
As m increases (for the heavier plane), the force required to move it at the same rate increases.
Easy numbers example: Plane A weighs 2 tons, Plane B weighs 4 tons. You want to accelerate them at 8 meters per second per second.
Plane A: F = 2*8 = 16m/s/s
Plane B: F = 4*8 = 32m/s/s
Friction is not the main impulse behind Newton's Second Law, it just increases it (hence why it's a coefficient of the normal force, and not a unit value). The example above was in space, with no friction. On Earth, the forces required to move both planes would be larger, and still unequal. On Earth, it would look something like:
Plane A: F = 2*8 = 16m/s/s + Ff_A
Plane B: F = 4*8 = 32m/s/s + Ff_B