THE NORTHROP YF-23 BLACK WIDOW II: THE SUPER FIGHTER THAT USAF REJECTED IN FAVOR OF THE LESS STEALTH YF-22

During the late 1970s, a new generation of Soviet fighters and Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAMs) prompted the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to find a replacement for the F-15 Eagle air superiority fighter.

For this reason in 1986, the USAF awarded demonstration contracts to two competing industry teams, the Lockheed-Boeing-General Dynamics (whose proposal was the YF-22A) and the Northrop-McDonnell Douglas (whose proposal was the YF-23A), which would have competed one versus the other in the Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program.

The Northrop YF-23A was designed to meet USAF needs for survivability, ease of maintenance and supercruise. To satisfy the latter requirement two different engines (the Pratt & Whitney YF119-PW-100L and the General Electric YF120) were competing one versus the other too. Called Augmented Turbofans, these new engines would have allowed both the YF-22 and the YF-23 to fly supersonic without using the afterburner, resulting in fuel savings and increased combat radius and effectiveness.

Northrop built two YF-23A prototypes: the first YF-23 (serial number 87-0800), Prototype Air Vehicle 1 (PAV-1), was rolled out on 22 Jun. 1990 and took its 50-minute maiden flight on Aug. 27 with Alfred “Paul” Metz at the controls while the second YF-23 (serial number 87-0801, PAV-2) made its first flight on Oct. 26, piloted by Jim Sandberg. The first aircraft was painted charcoal gray and was unofficially nicknamed “Spider” and “Black Widow II”, the latter after the Northrop P-61 Black Widow of World War II because it featured a red hourglass marking resembling the marking on the underside of the black widow spider before Northrop management had it removed. The second prototype, which was powered by General Electric YF120 engines, was painted in two shades of gray and nicknamed “Gray Ghost”.

The YF-23 emphasized stealth characteristics: in fact to lessen weight and increase stealth, Northrop decided against using thrust vectoring for aerodynamic control as was used on the Lockheed YF-22A.

The first YF-23, with Pratt & Whitney engines, supercruised at Mach 1.43 on Sep. 18, 1990, while the second, with General Electric engines, reached Mach 1.6 on Nov. 29, 1990. By comparison, the YF-22 achieved Mach 1.58 in supercruise. The YF-23 was tested to a top speed of Mach 1.8 with afterburners and achieved a maximum angle-of-attack of 25°. The maximum speed is classified, though sources state a maximum speed greater than Mach 2 at altitude and a supercruise speed greater than Mach 1.6.

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