Over the last few weeks, I’ve been reworking my LXR2-200, even though I just finished early this month. I’m making it more realistic than before, and I will be building much faster, so it won’t take a year to do, even though I'll be taking a sort of PlaneFlightX approach.
If you can't see the pictures below, click here (Google Drive Folder).

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Before and After

Wings

I thought the curvature of the wings weren’t really necessary for a plane about the size of an A320, so now they are straight.

Before:

After:

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Windows

Some people said that the cabin windows were like the ones on Concorde — small and round. So I’ve replaced them.

Before:

After:

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Nose

Other people said the windscreen was too big, which irritated me a lot when it was a criticism and not a recommendation. But it was quite large, so I raised the bottom edge, and stretched the nose to complete the new look.

Before:

After:

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Flaps

On the production LXR2, I added to the flaps what the prototype was missing: sliding flaps. But I left out the double slotted flaps for single slotted ones. I’ve now decided to combine the two for this new aircraft. I also added slats, with the help of GalacticaAsia.

Before:

After:

Flaps:


Slats:

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Airfoil

The airfoil on previous aircraft were simple ellipses. Now I’m using proper airfoil shapes, for obvious reasons.

Before:

After:

I've also done the tailfins and tailplanes, but they are very similar to the previous ones.

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Still to do

Landing gear

The landing gear will have more complex struts than before, with folding main struts controlling landing gear position. I’ve already started on the nose gear.

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Funky trees

I will be carrying over much of the Funky Trees codes from the LXR2-200, but I'll also likely add some new ones too.

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Interior

I will make an interior cabin, with CaptainNoble’s Passenger Seats, because they have a lower performance cost than the single seat parts. I hope to be able to fit at least 28 six-abreast rows, or 168 seats total.

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Engines

This aircraft will use brand new engines, with reduced thrust BFE300 engines on both sides.

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Cockpit

While the cockpit was the reason why the LXR2 took so long to finish, I will make changes to suit the new technologies and systems, and reduce the amount of information displayed — not all of it is necessary, and can even be overwhelming. The FT labels also increased the performance cost. More on that below.

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Building

Performance cost

I noticed an issue when making the windows, where small parts somehow duplicated themselves, raising the performance cost to over 11000! Fortunately, I was able to solve this without my game crashing, and get the performance cost right down.

I received some tips about Performance Cost by GalacticaAsia:

I usually replace the hinge rotators, small rotators, rotators, and pistons with control bases.

Here are their respective part costs:
Fuselage: 2.4
Control Base: 4.3
Rotator: 7.1
Piston: 11
Small rotator: 14.3
Hinge Rotator: 19.5

Here are the settings for the control Base to mimic the rotators and piston's functions:

Rotator & small Rotator: Wheel

Hinge Rotator: Lever

Piston: Yoke, use the one with the input of "Pitch", set the other to Disabled_

Doing this should shave off some of the part cost, I don't recommend replacing rotators and pistons in landing gear, flaps, and slats.

Text labels are also very good.

Text labels normally have a part cost of 1, but if it contains FT code, then its part cost becomes 27.1. However, the part cost stays the same no matter what you do with it.

The reason I stopped using lights for Windows is because it was tedious, and each light had a part cost of 4.3.

A text label, with FT code is the equivalent of 6-7 Lights, in terms of part cost. Replacing the lights for the windows with text labels was VERY effective, I could have 100 windows on one side and it would still have a part cost of 27.1 if I use a single text label with FT code in it. If I use a Text label with no FT, then I have 100 windows with a part cost of 1.

This is the reason I managed to maintain the part cost while having a higher part count. Using control Bases might help In your situation best, it could shave off a couple hundred points in performance cost. The one with labels, while useful, I don't think you really need to do it, you are doing a full interior after all.

— GalacticaAsia

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References

Part of the reason why some changes are made with extra realism is from using references, like blueprints and diagrams, and I’ve been using Dan Dornseif’s book on the Boeing 737.

Currently, the aircraft is called the LXR2-500, but due to the vast amount of differences between it and the other aircraft, the name will change prior to launch.

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If you want to stay tuned, T for tag.