Kerbal Air Force F-15D "Eagle"

[GKSP]

Hello, KSP forum!  I don't often post my own crafts here, but I have one here that I think is pretty much complete: my mostly-replica version of the F-15D Eagle.

KerbalX link is here!

Imgur Album: https://imgur.com/a/fePpOwQ

<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="a/fePpOwQ"  ><a href="//imgur.com/a/fePpOwQ">kaf15d images for kerbalx</a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Mods Required: 
KSP (duh!)
Airplane Plus
BDArmory (for Runway Project preferred)
SmartParts (parts can be deleted in the .craft file if you don't want to download the mod)

Part Count: 162
Length:  17.7m
Width:  12.7m
Height: 2.8m
Mass: 22.581t

----------

Taking from the spirit of the real-life F-15, I designed this to be an air-to-air fighter.  Its primary armament is 6 AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles and 2 AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles.  Each of the four fuselage weapon stations are designed to carry an AIM 120, and each of the wing weapon stations can carry either an AIM-120 or an AIM-9.  It carries an internal 20mm cannon with 940 rounds of ammunition.  The center pylon comes with an ECM jammer equipped, though it can carry either a cruise missile or external drop tank as well.

An external drop tank is mounted on each wing, and these will fall away automatically upon draining via SmartParts.  They can also be manually separated with AG5.

Performance:
Performs well with the stock aero model, not so much with FAR.  Flight characteristics seem natural enough that when I tried the F-15 in DCS, I was comfortable enough with it.  The plane remains controllable even at low airspeeds of down to around 50 m/s, and flies smooth as butter with the Atmospheric Autopilot mod turned on.  It was not designed to take advantage of the quirks of the stock aero model, so don't expect it to do crazy maneuvers; that goes against the spirit of a replica anyway.  At high altitudes and a low mass/drag configuration, this plane is capable of supercruise.  With drop tanks and weapons attached, though, burners will be required in order to break Mach 1.  Speed performance is about what you would expect for real life: if you want to get Mach 2+, go high altitude, etc.  For long distance cruising, I find an altitude of 7-7.5 km best at a velocity of ~250 m/s to balance fuel consumption and distance.

Other:
The nav lights on this plane are as they are in real life, even including the yellow formation lights on the wings.

----------

Action Groups: 

Stage: Switch Engine Mode
AG1: Next Weapon
AG2: Fire Missile/Guns
AG3: Countermeasures
AG4: Flaps
AG5: Release Drop Tanks

----------

One final note: I'm not sure if I tuned the PID controller for the pilot AI, and that's not something I'm very good at anyway.

Edited April 24, 2021 by GKSP