Welcome!
What you want to do is certainly possible. There are many people using AC3D with X-Plane.
VRML is really a destination/final format, and not the best for transporting models between programs. It could be the VRML importer creating all those groups. I would suggest using another file format to get your files into AC3D. Perhaps Wavefront OBJ.
There are some good animation videos on youtube e.g.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ono0hfjFF1s
Let us know how you get on.