You can turn on Dev mode, load into the hangar or the world, then start a new project (call it anything, doesn’t matter if you don’t save it). When you make a change, use the Aircraft Editor window (under Tools but only active when a project is open) to force a Resync. This will reload the aircraft.
If you make a change to the mdl or texture files, you may have to delete the CVT folder before resyncing (the game will generate a new one).
If you add or rename any files, you will need to update the layout.json and I believe that requires a game restart to refresh (worth a quick resync first to test).