Posted on 08/25/2022 3:45:57 PM PDT by whyilovetexas111
The late, great Sean Connery offered several classic “one-liners” in his lengthy career, and among the best was in 1996’s The Rock, when as a former MI-6 operative, he states bluntly, “Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and f*ck the prom queen.”
The YF-23 Story
Lockheed Martin’s F-22 Raptor can be seen as the winner in this case, and while it never had such relations with a prom queen, it has earned a reputation as the most capable air superiority fighter ever to fly. The “loser” was the Northrop-McDonnell Douglas YF-23, an experimental aircraft that competed in the late 1980s and early 1990s against the YF-22 in the United States Air Force’s Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program.
(Excerpt) Read more at 19fortyfive.com ...
God love you, whyilovetexas111! Hope you’re feeling great again soon.
Looks like an F-22 mated with a French Mirage. Pretty good looking kid.
Northorp is the Socialist Dept. of Bombers.
Boeing is the Socialist Dept. of Cargo Planes.
Can't have any real competition in our "free market" system.
Chemo is no fun. I agree. It sucked big time. I am interested in the next generation war. Missiles trucks Aka F15, targeting drones and F22+F35. It will be interesting. Who will we fight. Aliens. UFOs?
“The late, great Sean Connery...”
Holy crap, I didn’t know he was dead! And almost 2 years!
Well that sucks.
Sounds just like the competition between the F16 and the YF17 back in the day. My dad was a fighter pilot flying Phantoms at the time and intensely interested in the competition.
Our systems were on the YF-23, but the YF-22 was chosen, so … layoffs!
I did get to sit in one of the two displays of the YF-23. The one I saw was in Torrance, California. Very cool and a nice-looking plane.
>>Who will we fight. Aliens. UFOs?<<
Ever heard of CCP?
They are doing a great job of self destruction. I think the CCP will be happy holding onto China. I am often wrong.
Turn F15/F16 into drones with the operators having their own drone.
What is interesting is that the YF-22 versus YF-23 contest (Fifth Generation - G5) was in 1991 which means that they both were the best of late 1980s technology. From my civilian seat, to me it looks like the choice of the ‘22 was that it was a better all-around successor to the F-15 (G4), whereas the ‘23 was more specialized towards the Soviet Union (SU) aircraft. Given that the fly-off was as the SU was breaking up, that threat axis was not as urgent.
What is significant now is that it is 30 years on, and while there has been the F-35 Multi-role (A/B & C) developed, it is not a designed match to the latest developments in potential adversaries from China & Russia. So there looks to be a repeat of this competition to, at the very least, see what a G6 fighter (Next Generation Air Dominance) would do in the flesh. Also to be noted in this space is that Boeing is making some noise with upgrades to the 1970s F-15. It will NEVER be stealthy but it is still an impressive platform! AND there is the need to see what can be done by G6 RP (Remotely Piloted) platforms.
Just for funzies, for those who remember the Clint Eastwood 1982 movie, ‘Firefox’. I never liked the ‘mental control’ over the weapons that was the trick of that jet. Think how much better it would have been if that was redirected to flying the jet while the hands and active mind did the weapons!
This is about the umpty-4th time this year this subject has been posted.
But a generation ago, Lockheed was the cargo planes, Boeing the fighers and bombers (with a nod to Convair on the bombers) North American took a shot at the bombers, but that was supressed. .
Don’t forget the X-32 — X-35 battle
You may know way more than me. It will all be turned upside down base on tech. Into the black we shall go.
LMT's retired generals had more mojo than NOC's retired generals. Oh well.
NOC got the B-2 stealth bomber, and they're developing the B-21 next gen stealth bomber.
They also built the Webb space telescope, which is looking like a huge success. It's a whole new generation of orbital observation platform, and you can rest assured it's only one in a series of copies, most of which will not be known about publicly.
God bless, hope you are past all the pain points.
To the article: Both planes were amazing. I do like the F23 more in terms of range and ceiling, and... frankly... the looks of it. :)
I worked in the SPO for the ATF, and I felt the YF-23 was the sexier and stealthier plane. However, Northrop had been rewarded the B-2 contract, so to spread the money around, the YF-22 was selected. F-22 was more agile but not as stealthy as the YF-23. In the end, either one would have been the best fighter on the planet, hands down.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.