[QuantumDelta]

Try it on your joy then try it on your keyboard with the numberpad, tell me which you think is easier

Aiming during a furball with the keyboard is significantly easier because you only have 2(6) modifiers to really care about, but when you're talking about an unmoving dot on the screen the joystick is significantly faster to it, and faster to settle.
Feather touches!
Although it can be a ***** on some joysticks, even the Cyborg series (which, I hate) can handle it ok in FS.

Naturally it is easier to swap to the mouse regardless of which control interface you're using :<

Also, although I didn't stick with it for long (because the gain in skill level would have been so minimal in the end) I actually found no deadzone/max sense to be easier than any significantly noticeable deadzone and lower sense, just feels more natural :<
(again, with a cheapy cyborg evo), wonder if it helps against the ramping playing like that.

[Akalabeth Angel]

It looks cool.
I like it.

[Droid803]

The SF Dragon is an Advanced Interceptor. (or alternativey, a Pain in the Ass)
See that tiny profile from all angles, high speed, and shields that can actually take a hit?

The Serapis is an Advanced Piece of Paper designed to appear (quite convincingly) like a fighter until it's taken into combat.

[Asakura]

The Dragon is not an Advanced Interceptor. The Dragon is the ship you do not want to be dogfighting.

[Iranon]

The Dragon is a hard-to-swat gnat and is only a nightmare in single player because you don't have the time to take them out. It would be a useful ship to give to my wingmates (if all I require from them is distracting my opponents AND there are no capital ships around) but I certainly wouldn't want to fly one myself.

Interceptors need to take something down before it can threaten whatever we are supposed to defend... with half the missile capacity of a typical interceptor and primary firepower considerably worse than a single bank of 2 Subachs, the Dragon can't do that.

Interesting fact: Its firepower is so poor that in a straight shootout, it would lose to any GTVA craft with the strongest weapons it can carry... including Stealth fighters and Vasudan lights with their less-than-impressive shields. 'How am I supposed to kill a nimble Dragon when they are so small and have shields that strong?' simply becomes 'How am I supposed to kill a nimble <insert GTVA light fighter of choice> when my weapons are that weak?'.
A competent pilot piloting a dragon would be almost unkillable, but they won't make a meaningful contribution to any fight. The Loki is probably the most survivable GTVA dogfighter... but very often it's passed over because it lacks the firepower to do a given job quickly enough. The Dragon is far, far worse.
To add insult to the injury: A Dragon is completely helpless against anything heavy playing gun turret; GTVA lights still have enough firepower to make this risky.

[Spoon]

Of course if you are going to allow the player to fly a dragon, it should be able to carry decent weaponry. Like the terran mara.

[Dragon]

In FS1 mission "Playing Judas"

Spoiler:

You have to pilot captured SF Dragon to infiltrate Shivan fleet. Though it's weakened in this mission, it uses Terran weaponary and I think it was really fun to fly in this mission. When you get attacked by enemy fighters, it's capable of fighting them instead of running (at least on medium in original FS1 I haven't played FS1 nor FSPort on higer difficulties jet).

[QuantumDelta]

Works on insane too Dragon you just have to be a bit sharp on your turns if they launch missiles at you.

[Dragon]

That's one of the things I liked the most about it, you almost don't need countermeasures to fool Shivan missiles, they are just too unagile to get you if you know how to evade them. (this works on other fighters as well, but SF Dragon is best suited for it). Manticores just aren't fast nor agile enough to be dangerous even to a Terran version of Dragon if it's handled by a skilled pilot.
On a side note, if somebody wants to fly Shivan ships (including a Shivan version of Dragon), there's a really good campaign called "Tides of Darknees" (here: http://freespacemods.net/download.php?view.456 ).

[CP5670]

The Dragon's secondary capacity sucks but it has a fairly good primary weapon layout. It's not easily visible in Playing Judas, but the second bank with the Prometheus has three mounts that are very close to each other. So it has the same number of mounts as the Ursa, but with much better placement for aiming.

[General Battuta]

Let's put Balors on them!

[Thaeris]

NO.

[Scotty]

Balors would be fun. 

[Hades]

On a side note, if somebody wants to fly Shivan ships (including a Shivan version of Dragon), there's a really good campaign called "Tides of Darkness" (here: http://freespacemods.net/download.php?view.456 ).

The only good thing about Tides of Darkness is flying Shivan ships, but let's not go into that.

[General Battuta]

Oh, come now, there's no need to be such a downer. I liked many things about ToD.

[Snail]

Oh, come now, there's no need to be such a downer. I liked many things about ToD.

Yeah, but I didn't. No offense to Droid803 but the storyline made little sense and was also badly delivered.

The novelty of using Shivan weapons and ships wore off quickly too.

[Kosh]

To add insult to the injury: A Dragon is completely helpless against anything heavy playing gun turret; GTVA lights still have enough firepower to make this risky.

The Dragon was a nightmare in FS1, but thankfully in FS2 we have a wonderful new weapon that it is totally helpless against: Anti Fighter Beams.

[ChronoReverse]

If you're going to be flying a wimpy (but speedy) fighter, why not just fly the Pegasus instead?  The speed and agility of the thing is fun if you're only worried about killing snubfighters.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Mind you, I will prefer the Serapis over any other Vasudan light fighter simply because it has an excellent pitch-turn-bank rate and decent gunpoints.

[headdie]

To add insult to the injury: A Dragon is completely helpless against anything heavy playing gun turret; GTVA lights still have enough firepower to make this risky.

The Dragon was a nightmare in FS1, but thankfully in FS2 we have a wonderful new weapon that it is totally helpless against: Anti Fighter Beams.

I spent what felt like 5 minutes in FS1 trying to kill the last dragon in one mission cause i was in a herc and couldn't keep the damn thing in weapons range