The ship does look like an insect, but its too low poly to get a good idea of its shape at the minute.

At certain angles (in the last picture) the silhouette is confused so I suggest you up the detail a bit more.

The texture pattern (which is nice) is fighting with the underlying model making it look messy. Is smoothing on too? If its not, switch it on and post some screens again.

OK crit over....sorry if it sounded negative! The above view (first picture) is a different story, the shape is well defined so you don't need much work there.

I've kind of hit a brick wall with the handling and guidance of my AI....

What I'm planning on now is a more pro-active system:

Applies an opposite force to combat side-slip.

Have nodes that have speed values, so on detection / touch the ship adjusts its own speed to match (say for example on sharp bends).

Have some form of primitive braking mechanism.

Its annoying to start again but its all a learning experience