The Only Plane That Could Beat The F-22 Raptor

Even in a competition between giants there will always be a party that loses, such is the story of the Northrop Corporation YF-23 aircraft of which

only

two prototypes were made, affectionately known as the Black Widow 2 and the Gray Phantom that today most of people have forgotten. This phenomenal aircraft and even those who remember it have placed it as a footnote to history as the aircraft that lost to Lockheed Martin's mighty YF-22, now known as the F-22 Raptor, but the aircraft that produced Northrop Corporation was anything but unforgettable. today we will delve into the past and tell you why the yf-23 was a masterpiece of modern engineering 40 years ago the possibilities of nuclear war were very possible with two superpowers engaged in an invisible war it was felt that the united states would find themselves In a terrible shooting war against an extremely armed Soviet Union with a 4 to 1 military advantage belonging to Soviet forces in Eastern Europe, these were legitimate concerns not

only

for the United States but also for its political allies in Europe in the At a time when the United States and its allies were heavily dependent on the F-15 Eagle aircraft, although it was a brilliant aircraft in many aspects, it was aging and had a very small advantage over the new Soviet aircraft such as the MiG-29 and the highly modernized aircraft such as the su-27. family, was enough for the US Air Force to realize the need for a new fighter, so it took a bold step in the early 1980s to come up with new requirements for a new air superiority fighter.

Under a program called the advanced tactical fighter or ATF program from the initial requirements stages, the US Air Force's main focus was on a few features that the new aircraft would absolutely need. It included all stealth aspects, i.e. the ability to have a reduced radar cross section in various flight regimes. The engine must be able to supercruise, that is, fly at supersonic speeds without the use of an afterburner. The use of composite materials and new alloys in construction processes to reduce the overall weight of the aircraft. Advanced fly-by-wire systems to make the aircraft more maneuverable. and finally, the aircraft should have short takeoff and landing or stol capabilities.

After the initial years of evaluating proposals and designs, the prototyping and flight testing contract was awarded to Lockheed Martin's YF-22 design and the yf-23 from Northrop Corporation in 1986. Northrop Corporation has always had a history of building high-performance aircraft. Its founder, Jack Northrop, was the first aviation designer to pioneer the flying wing concept, which led to the eventual development of the B-2 stealth bomber, which is currently the United States' primary long-range stealth bomber. air force following the same legacy northrop designers partnered with mcdonnell douglas to design the yf-23 which many still consider the aircraft more technologically advanced than its competitor the yf-23 prototypes measured 67 feet 5 inches long and had a wingspan of 43 feet 7 inches, which was slightly larger than its competitor, the YF22, giving the YF23 a slight advantage in range and speed.

The PAV1 and PAV2 air vehicle prototypes were powered by two Pratt Whitney YF-119 and two General Electric YF-120 afterburning turbofan engines. respectively, both engine types were able to meet the ATF program's minimum requirements of generating 000 pounds of afterburning thrust with supercruise capability; However, in the end the Pratt Whitney YF-119 was chosen to power the winning entry of the Lockheed YF-22, both prototypes. It

could

reach a maximum speed of Mach 2.2 and supercruise at Mach 1.6. The Northrop prototype was the first to take to the skies. Pav1 made its first 50-minute maiden flight on August 27 with Alfred Paul Metz at the controls.

Pav2 took off. shortly after on October 26 and was flown by Jim Sandberg by all accounts the design of the YF-23 was brilliant with some very advanced design elements, the aircraft was configured with diamond shaped wings or trapezoidal wings which allowed Designers reduce aerodynamic drag at transonic speeds. between Mach 0.75 and Mach 1.2, this meant that the aircraft had good low speed performance despite being an overall fast aircraft, the trapezoidal wing configuration also offered advantages for high speed flight as well as a Small, heavily loaded wing like that of the YF-23 offered substantially less drag at supersonic speeds than other configurations.

The tapered design of the wing also reduced structural stresses, allowing for wind thinning, thus using less material during construction and keeping the overall weight of the aircraft down. Along with the unusually shaped wing, the YF-23 also featured. a V-tail that moves completely in favor of the more traditional vertical fins and horizontal surfaces. This type of tail design is sometimes called a butterfly tail. It's an unconventional design but offers some direct advantages. This configuration reduces the total exposed surface area of ​​the tail. which not only leads to less parasitic drag but also makes the rudder controls more effective, allowing the pilot of the yf23 to achieve more speed and maintain proper controls during high-speed flight, advancing the cockpit of the yf -23 was positioned very close to the nose of the aircraft to improve the pilot's overall visibility, the aircraft had a conventional tricycle landing gear design with the internal weapons compartment positioned in the lower part of the fuselage, between the nose and gears. main landing pads, which meant that the aircraft would carry all of its weapons on the inside and not on the wing hardpoints, this choice was made to maintain all stealth aspects of the aircraft, as the weapons on the external hardpoints are the main factor in increasing the radar cross section of an aircraft.

The two engine manufacturers powering the YF-23 PAV 1 and 2 were in their own competition to see which

could

produce the best supercruise capable engine in its class. Both engines combined on the YF-23 produced approximately seventy thousand pounds of thrust, which is equivalent to over forty thousand horsepower by comparison, an average Arleigh Burke class destroyer has a total of one. One hundred thousand shaft horsepower, this new generation of engines nearly doubled the thrust available to the YF-23 from its closest counterpart in US Air Force service, the F-15 Eagle, whose Two Pratt Whitney F-100 engines could only produce about 40,000 pounds of thrust in the afterburner configuration.

This increase in engine performance was a major technological advance for the ATF program, as it led to the creation of the first aircraft. world's super cruiser fighter, meant that fighter jets would no longer have to rely on gas-guzzling afterburners. To achieve supersonic speeds, saving valuable fuel and increasing the overall range of aircraft, a major challenge for ATP program designers was to provide stable airflow to high-performance engines in an airframe that is difficult to detect in the air. Radar. Simply put, the problem had to do with the boundary layer. The air that spreads around the fuselage of the

plane

as it flies.

Boundary layer air can flow at different speeds and directions compared to air moving from the surface of the aircraft. The mixing of these two air streams can cause large drops in engine efficiency during certain extreme flight regimes. The air layer can become very turbulent, greatly affecting engine performance or even suffocating it at supersonic speeds. These problems have become even more serious. The YF-23 featured a trapezoidal engine inlet with S-ducts and some very clever solutions to make this program disappear before the ATF program's supersonic aircraft addressed this problem by using elaborate divider plates to separate the two airstreams and maintain a uniform supply through the inlet opening, but those concepts were not very conducive to stealth - even a small gap between the inlet and the fuselage can result in radar crosstalk. -increased section, so the designers of the YF-23 came up with an innovative solution: they installed gauze panels in front of where the fuselage meets the leading edge of the air intake.

These panels had small holes drilled all over them and would absorb the boundary layer. The air stuck to the fuselage before entering through the air inlet. This air was then exhausted through a pair of small doors on the upper surface of the YF-23. In fact, it acted as a kind of invisible dividing plate, but instead of separating the air, it eliminated it. The system was called the boundary layer control system and worked automatically. This intake configuration along with the gauze panels feed the engine's huge compressors with a constant flow of air even at supersonic speeds while maintaining complete stealth, unlike its competitor, the YF-23.

It does not have a thrust vectoring motor nozzle. Some say this was a major disadvantage for the Y-23 in the ATF program and reduced its overall maneuverability, making the aircraft less agile in low speed regimes; However, according to the

plane

's designers, they sacrificed a little. A bit of agility to gain much more survivability due to the flat nature of the YF-23's fixed engine nozzles, designers were able to coat them with thermal ablation tiles, thus reducing the infrared signature or ir signature from the aircraft to the heat seeking surface. air and air-to-air missiles, the primary weapon system an enemy will deploy against an observable stealth air superiority fighter, much like the company's B2 bomber, the heat ablation plates significantly dissipated engine nozzle temperature , which was between three thousand and four thousand degrees Fahrenheit, on the other hand, to be maneuverable and maintain its agility during air-to-air combat, the YF-23 prototypes were installed with multiple aerodynamic instabilities, all controlled by its advanced flight by wire, the yf.

The -23 central processor was considered the most advanced supercomputer of its time, performing between five and six billion operations per second. The system not only managed the aircraft's flight controls but also provided radar navigation performance data and situational awareness to the pilot, all in real time. While all these features made the YF23 a true technological marvel of its time, the weapons system of the YF-23 prototypes was based mainly on air-to-air missiles and air-to-ground bombs, since all missiles and bombs had to transported inside. the internal weapons bay for the main stealth the overall payload capacity was not that large compared to other conventional fighters despite this all the weapons needed in an air superiority fighter were available to the pilot of the yf-23 the aircraft It could carry the standard Aim 9 Sidewinder for close air-to-air fire and also the Aim-120 Amram or Aim-7 Sparrow for medium to beyond visual range targets, the aircraft also featured a main M61 Vulcan cannon that could fire bullets. twenty millimeters at a very high rate of fire of around six thousand rounds per minute.

Finally, given the types of mission, it also had the capacity to carry up to two thousand-pound air-to-ground bombs or four five-hundred-pound bombs in total, the Two prototypes of the YF-23 tested well and checked all the boxes required for the ATF program and some argue that they even

beat

their competitor the YF-22 in areas of speed range and overall performance; However, today we all know how the story goes. After four grueling years of testing and evaluation, the YF-22 was selected as the winner. Regarding the YF-23, the designers of the two YF-23 prototypes have always remained firm in their belief that their aircraft was superior and more technologically advanced than the two, however, various political forces and lobbies influenced the decision.

In favor of Lockheed's YF-22, which is still currently in service as the F-22 Raptor, a total of 195 F-22 Raptors were produced and production was finally stopped in 2011. On the other hand, the two prototypes of the YF -23, PAV1 and PAV2, were donated to air museums and were never flown again, but in recent years there has been a glimmer of hope for the resurgence of the YF-23 in the form of the Japanese F3 sixth generation fighter. Japan is seeking the assistance of Northrop Grumman to assist in the design and development of its F3 fighter program and given all the experience gained during the development of the YF-23 the company is optimistic in securing the contract for this project regardless of what we are told.

Whatever the future holds as aviation enthusiasts, we would love to see the return of the YF-23 in its reincarnated form taking to the skies and finally bearing fruit from all the research and hard work.who dedicated himself to manufacturing this magnificent airplane that everyone seems to have forgotten. So what do you think about the possible return of the yf23? Let us know in the comments section. below and stay updated on advanced military weapons and news, click the subscribe button and turn on notifications and we will notify you when a new video arrives, thanks for watching.