The Northrop/McDonnell Douglas YF-23A was a contender in the bid for an advanced tactical fighter to replace the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle in US Air Force service. The first of two prototypes flew in August 1990, the second aircraft being powered by General Electric YF120-GE-100 turbofan engines. The YF-23A was designed to be ultra-stealthy and incorporated many of the stealth features of the Northrop
Grumann B-2 bomber, and all its planned weaponry was to be housed in an internal bay to reduce the radar signature. The two YF-23s
successfully completed their flight test programme, but the Lockheed YF-22 was selected to meet the USAF requirement.
Robert Jackson "The Encyclopedia of Aircraft", 2004
Northrop/McDonnell Douglas YF-23 Black Widow II on YOUTUBE
The issue may be a result ofpolitics and design! The RCS of the F-23 was greater than that of the F-22 - look at the canopy design / difference and note the significance of that design difference! There is your issue - not that it makes any difference at this time!
The fact is the YF-22 had its doors blown off by the YF-23 when the side by side speed test were conducted it was the YF-22 STANDING STILL not an F-15!The F-22 IS THE BEST OF THE BEST MSY SEE THE F-23BLACKWIDOW 2 OUT OF MOTHBALLS SOME DAY.
I thought that the f-22 was the best of the best. Then i found out about the F-23. SO now every time i see a f-22 it just looks so stupid. The F-23 was much more of a stealth design and was very maneuverable, but that the USAF's problem. So thanks again for shooting your self in the food AGAIN!!!
im a mexican citizen and berry fortuned for the oportuniti to be a part of a teem member of the construccion of this magnificent machine I worked on rnd. on the late 80s /90s Im gratful to that grate country that make me feel like one of his oun.......I will doit oll ober again tanks.
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A naval fighter can be operated from land bases, but not necessarily the other way. It's more than a tailhook. Also, the wide range of naval munitions must be stored internally. Of course, the Air Force made a cute new skinnybomb for the F-22 just for show. I'm reminded of the Luftwaffe aversion to puchasing the He-100D or any Heinkel fighter because they made bombers. The government went through enough to kill the F-20. Even chuck couldn`t save it. They were on sale through the State Department! Ever see anybody in State that you would buy a car from! The decision for the F-22 was made in the usual way, by people who didn`t know or care and were made all the richer for it.
The F-23, a sexy beast that turned heads and made you go hmmm, will always be number 1 with me. As for the F-22, it looks like the result of a one night stand between an eagle and a hornet( I'll admit it is a good plane too). All kidding aside, i beleive as long as politics has a hand in the process and the mind set of some of the top brass in the military as a determining factor in what we have, we will have to make the best of what we are given to play with. Although it would be nice to let us military grunts,(pilots, mechanics, etc), choose what we have in our toy box from time to time. F-23 powered by GE for the win.
Yes the F23 was a better choice but issue now is to get enough F22's into service 183 is to small. 600 is what is needed. The F22's are over streached in service. The JSF is not a F22.
Problem is those assholes in washinton think they know better than pilots, being one myself. I actually flew this fine aircraft and it's better than anything I've flown. It looks a hellofalot better than the F-33 that's for damn sure!!
One thing that everyone here might find humorous: While both YF-23As were fflyable after the fly-off, neither of the YF-22As were. I know that one of the YF-22As had a hard landing on the lakebed and forced the main landing gear up through the wing. My memory is a little fuzzy on the other one but I seem to recall that it was lost when a major system failure cropped up in flight and the pilot had to escape the aircraft. I could be wrong on the second one.
A friend of mine, Cal Jewett, talked with Paul after the first in-flight afterburner test on the YF-23A. Cal said that Paul was actually frightened at the acceleration. He had given the F-15 chase-plane a few seconds head start and shortly thereafter blew by him like he was standing still. We, at the B-2 CTF, decided that the contract for the ATF was awarded on the basis of politics, not capability. The YF-23A truly was the superior aircraft.
To all: There are several books, videos, and other resources available for personal research. Thus, you can draw your own educated conclusions about why one jet took the contract and the other did not. To summarize my own findings, the YF-22 was faster(initial top speed testing), more manueverable (in part due to its use of thrust vectoring and smaller size), and was cheaper by approximately $800,000 per copy. It was considered to use more reliable and conventional technologies. YF-23 was considered more "cutting edge" in terms of design and construction technologies, but the Air Force considered these technologies "riskier" and less proven. YF-23 posted substantially better RCS (stealth) numbers, had greater range (due to internal wing volume area) and a lower drag coefficient, even though it is a larger aircraft. Both Lockheed and Northrop engineers agree that (had further testing been approved)the YF-23 is the inherently faster design. And while the YF-22 canopy was one single piece with no framing obstructions, the YF-23 pilot sits much higher on the plane and has absolutely unparalleled visibility around his aircraft. Northrop chose to use a weapons bay mock-up demonstrator, whereas Lockheed actually built a working weapons bay into their prototypes. Yes, the YF-23 unveiled and flew more than a month before the YF-22. Yes, the YF-23 is a much more sinuous and better looking design. Overall I believe the YF-23 is dollar for dollar a superior and more capable aircraft. I believe Lockheed was more politically savvy and greased more palms with the Air Force, who took the cheaper and less radical design choice due to old school stick-in-the-mud conventionalist status quo mindset thinking. Short version: I gotta agree with Dennis Husted. Your tax dollars at work.
I remember working on the airplane during the f-22 and f-23 competition. The F-23 was superior in many instances, and the prototype was finished several months ahead of the f-22. The competition was held-up waiting for lockheed to finish the f-22. Quite frankly, the F-23 lost due to Northrop's poor relationship with the Government.
To the people that are worried about spelling issues. Have you ever considered that they were typing issues. Get a life. But then again it is always a good way to divert from actual discussing an issue.
i think that northrop grumann will turn around and sell it to the airforces that buy frm EADS (now that would be funny to see the best jet fighter in the world owned buy a country other than the U.S.).
