"The F-23 Fighter: The Super Plane America Never Built " Topic

"The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is the best air superiority fighter ever built, but could America have done better?

When the YF-22 prototype won the contract for the Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) in April 1991, it was a lesser plane compared to the Northrop YF-23 in many ways. Though the YF-22 was a more maneuverable aircraft, the YF-23 had far greater supersonic cruise capability—especially when outfitted with the General Electric YF120 variable cycle engines. Even when powered by the less powerful Pratt & Whitney YF-119, the YF-23 had the ability to fly an entire sortie at supersonic speeds above Mach 1.4 (explained to me sometime ago by Barry Watts at the Wilson Center—who was an analyst on the Northrop team at the time). The sleek prototype jet could also cruise at slightly more than Mach 1.8 when equipped with the YF-120…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Yea, a real shame about that.

We should have purchased several squadrons of these at a minimum.

I saw both prototype aircraft first hand. I thought the 23 was a far better looking airplane. And usually, the better an airplane looks, the better it is.

#2 is at the little general aviation field near us. Oddly enough, it's behind the service department of an Auto Nation Acura dealership. I suspect that 0.001% of the people who pass through there have even the slightest idea what it is.

They did up an attack version with greater bomb stowage a little later as well. Would prefer to see this get ordered over the F35A in both fighter and attack versions. They can still produce the short/vertical takeoff versions of the F35, the B/C models.

I dont get it. People are crying about how terrible the F-35 would be in dogfights, so how would the YF-23 have been any better if it was pretty-much a straight-line rocket?

If you can sneak up from behind (and/or from any other quarter undetected) at fast speed, and blast your enemies from the sky, you don't need to dogfight.

The F-35's too slow to catch almost all post-1960s era jets.

Interesting…

Amicalement
Armand