Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Northrop YF-23 Black Widow II was written into the pages of military aviation as a story of innovation and almost winning. This highly advanced tactical fighter took part in the Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program of the United States Air Force (USAF). This put the YF-23, with some unique and hitherto unused features, and advanced stealth, next to the Lockheed YF-22 that would ultimately become the F-22 Raptor.
The Advanced Tactical Fighter was a concept adopted in 1971 when initial exploratory studies looked into the feasibility of grafting stealth technology into contemporary fighter aircraft. By the early 1980s, the requirements of the USAF had been further refined by the USAF Tactical Air Command (TAC) for the next generation of fighter aircraft. However major aircraft manufacturers developed designs for the ATF with only intermittent funding.
A formal Request for Information was issued to leading aircraft companies in 1981 by the Air Force. It included Northrop, Lockheed, and other companies besides Boeing. These companies put together 19 design concepts in total. At this time, the competition worked down to two teams that included Lockheed and Boeing and General Dynamics and Northrop, which paired up with McDonnell Douglas. The resulting prototypes included those designated as YF-22 and YF-23.
Northrop’s YF-23, at times called the “Black Widow II,” was an aircraft engineered for both swiftness and stealth. The design of its wings, made in diamond shape, and its stealth materials made it almost invisible to radar. One key distinctive feature of the YF-23’s design, in the performer’s words, is a “pancake-like airframe structure with blended wing elements” aimed at trying to minimize drag as much as possible in the air.
Two YF-23 prototypes were built, with two different engines. One, finished in charcoal gray, was nicknamed “Spider” or “Black Widow II” and was powered by Pratt & Whitney YF119 engines. The other, known by the name “Gray Ghost,” was powered by General Electric YF120 engines. Both of these prototypes demonstrated nearly unparalleled capabilities in speed, stealth, and armament, including supercruise, by following through on supersonic flight without the use of afterburners.
The YF-23 was an impressive performer, with a top speed of Mach 2.2, an extended operational range of 2,796 miles, and a service ceiling of 65,000 feet. With a low profile and classified skin material, the stealth qualities, of which it took advantage, made the aircraft invisible on nearly all the radar systems utilized during that period. The aircraft was also well-armed, certainly carrying an internally mounted fixed 20mm M61 Vulcan cannon, and other air-to-air missiles in its internal bays.
In ATF, the YF-23 lost out to the YF-22, which was slightly less advanced in design. The YF-22 outperformed in air combat maneuvers, which is a primary factor for any fighter. On April 23, 1991, Secretary of the Air Force Donald Rice announced the winning team in the competition as Lockheed F-22 and Pratt & Whitney F119. Both planes met the ATF requirements, but the USAF had more confidence that Lockheed together with Pratt & Whitney was more able to maintain control over the program and to deliver them on time and within cost the ARF weapon system.
The YF-23 prototypes were put into storage until 1996. PAV-1 is now on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, and PAV-2 is at the Western Museum of Flight.
In the end, by no means was the YF-23 a losing design but merely a victim of circumstance. The competition was indeed stiff, and the YF-22’s slight edge in agility, and more weight upon some confidence in the management capabilities of Lockheed, tipped the scale. The YF-23 was and remains an incredible specimen of advanced military aviation technology that, despite the competitive outcome, really should have been made capable of changing the entire connotation of air superiority.