Fifth gen a/c of the US that never was

tphuang said:

hehehe, does anyone know how the stealthiness of YF-23 compare to F-22? I remember reading that 23 was supposed to be even more stealthy. However, it looks from that picture that F-22 is more stealthy (from my untrained eyes). Definitely a sexy fighter, still not as pretty as F-22 though.

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I don't have numbers, but I have also read that the YF-23 had a slight edge in stealth over the YF-22. The YF-22 had the edge in overall manoeuverability, owing in large part to its 2d thrust vectoring nozzles--the YF-23 had no thrust vectoring. A production variant of the YF-23 also would have had slightly more range and payload and slightly higher max speed vs. today's F-22. In the end the USAF picked the YF-22 and the P&W F119 because both were seen as lower risk vs. their competition from northrop and GE.

A decent source, although having mostly to do with organizational aspects and less technical, is Advanced Tactical Fighter to F-22 Raptor: Origins of the 21st Century Air Dominance Fighter published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).