Both, it's by design because it's so heavy, it just decreases the cost of keeping it afloat since buoyancy can still help out.

I do notice it sits quite low in the water. Was this by design or by consequence of the armour?

The Blue Dragons are more spacecraft than plane, so they use mostly thrust-based turning.

I use a 5-way ion thruster assembly on a spinblock as a sort of reaction control system. Those are scattered throughout the inside of the ship. The main engine legs pivot up and down at a set rate of .15-.25 rad/s in order to pitch and roll.

I admit I use a program that turns joystick input into keyboard presses. That makes controlling flying craft easier. It’s still doable with keyboard control, but it’s harder.

Awesome, it's really difficult to make a plane that's really controllable by players.

Most planes are either too responsive, or rely on strafe and hover thrusters which are just too much for anyone to manage manually at the same time as pitch, yaw, and roll.

Honestly though, this probably beats my latest Blue Dragon (the mk 7) hands down, unless I'm flying it (with avatar repairs off, to make sure it's fairer). Even then, I'd say that I'd have to fly very defensively, making the best use of speed and altitude to pick my best approaches. You're a brick, I'm a robin's egg.

In an AI vs AI fight, the Blue Dragons (most all of them) lose to a Bulwark. I haven't gotten the AI piloting figured out yet. It mostly crashes the thing. Maybe it can't handle the 220 m/s top speed and the intended 1600+ m altitude. I just don't know. But then, I made the Blue Dragons to be flown by human pilots/players.

Colour changing shields?!? That's I'm doomed ;-P