@AerialSus those are interesting suggestions, surely, and I appreciate your interest in SP. Having played SP for almost 3 years, I’ve tried all those things, and they don’t work. For you, though, let me attempt to convey something I’ve learned about SP: It’s a simulator that merely uses a series of algorithms to emulate aerodynamic effects...there is no air in SP...not even something that emulates air. An object moving at a certain speed in SP generates a drag value based on its velocity value, size, shape and, in many cases, simply what that object is (in this case, a beacon light). That is why a fuselage piece which is angled into the wind generates zero lift, unlike in RL, where it would (the best examples of this are NASA’s lifting bodies from the 1960s-1970s). Also, “burying” an object in a second object, placing it “out of the airflow” does not effect drag at all. Merely it’s presence in your design will add drag. That’s why a custom landing gear, which looks great, doesn’t reduce overall drag when retracted, it generates a value through its presence in your design. My complaint here was that the relative orientation of that beacon light in a design causes a huge drag increase in SP, which is unrealistic. Also, when building a replica, such as this F-4, you’re quite constrained by your RL design. In this case, I got around the relative orientation problem by turning the nav lights on the design ...it worked and wasn’t really noticeable at all. I should thank you, because after having given you this explanation, I realize I shouldn’t be surprised about this inaccuracy.

@ChiChiWerx usually for flights i get rid of landing gears, that is if you dont land, try to mesh parts, put the lights away from direct air flow (like the rear). There are other options out there to reduce overall drag.

@AerialSus uh, huh. Thanks 😑. Yeah, I built that thing almost 2 years ago, now I XML to reduce drag in cases such as this. You have any other ingenious suggestions besides?

Sometimes a bit of ingenuity is required to achieve your desired result

@Gestour yeah, sure 200 points isn't that much, unless you're trying to avoid XML modding your engines (and the unrealistic acceleration that entails) and still achieve realistic speeds...whew! That was a mouthful!

Don't you hate it when drag just drags you down?

Because life isn’t always fair.

Lol it added 1000 on my f-4 but I fixed it so now it is 0

As long as the drag is even, it doesn't actually really matter, and 200 drag points is nothing... unless you're building a glider (i know youre not), I would just ignore it.