Well, yes #6 is much better, but since we haven't had much success keeping modellers in the last few years....
For a short term solution I'd say using the flying model is fine, the only detail it misses is the landing gear, the flying version I refer to is different form the geoscape model, which is in fact lower poly, also for the record: almost all human aircraft has two versions, one landed and one flying, in fact there was the time when the game would switch between them depending the craft being at the base or in transit...
Edit: In theory the menu should still be switching models — just checked the scripts and it seems to still be there...
As for rotating the model in the maps, the model could of course go either way, I just say we should rotate it back if we rotate the model itself because in the new orientation it could intersect with the spawn points or some prop that might be on the map, so rather than opening every map with the Raptor and checking if it is OK in the new orientation I figured it would be easier to just replace the angles directly in the map files