That is one beautiful aircraft.
It looks like it has faint resemblance to the SR-71.
What a beautiful aircraft.
I think Northrop lost mainly because the B2 was being built at the time and LockMart was hurting for contacts.
Boeing’s “Monica” never had a chance.
YF-23 Walk Around and Design Features by Test Pilot Paul Metz
YF-23 DEM/VAL Presentation by Test Pilots Paul Metz and Jim Sandberg
discussion of the aero & RCS features and the V-Tails that I have never heard before are in one of these...
I remember following the competition between these two. I always liked the YF-23 better. Beautiful plane, up there with the B1.
I remember reading old articles about the USN’s involvement in the ATF selection, but could never remember where. Thanks for posting this.
As to the YF-23, there were rumors for years that a variant had been put into limited production as a black-world/silver bullet strike-interdiction replacement for the F-111 and F-117 fleets. I figure some day we’ll find out ;-)
But, since the F-23 is already designed, ya never know how useful a few could be.