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Get 10% Off Your First Site And Domain At Squarespace https://www.squarespace.com/found NEW CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXxl5Ef5lFg Discord: https://discord.gg/WXb565P9nQ My News Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD3cl0MmX6fGZzeAHt4JWJA Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpM4zrZ9c_apiEj6CApj2yw/join Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/foundandexplained The YF-23 was the main competitor to the legendary F-22 Raptor, or at the time YF-22,in a contest to create the future air dominance fighter for the 21st century, and counter Soviet Sukhois. Even though the YF-23 surpassed the YF-22 in some of the aspects and requirements set by the government, ultimately, it wasn’t the winner. To answer why and look into more detail behind the jet we never got, strap yourself and hold on tight and meet the Black Widow II. When first sighting the new Soviet aircraft on the satellite imagery in 1978. the US was worried. New Su-27 and MiG-29s were direct competitors to the F-15C and the question of the air dominance was back on the table. Government started a new program called ATF or Advanced tactical fighter with several famous American aircraft manufacturers applying for the job. By the late 1986. It was decided that Lockheed Martin will develop one prototype and Northrop along with McDonell Douglas, the guys behind F-15, AH-64 and many other legendary US aircraft will start working on the other one. They were given a deadline of 4 years and the game was on. Northrop opted for a completely new and innovative design with some of the elements borrowed from already known and proven concepts. 2 of the signature design decisions with the YF-23 were it’s diamond shaped wings and moveable V-shaped tail. There were no horizontal stabilizers, rather the tail surfaces would help steer the aircraft as they were tilted 50 degrees to each side. They would help provide both pitch and yaw during the flight. Pitch by rotating in the opposite direction and yaw by rotating in the same direction. It’s interesting to note that Russian Su-57 borrowed this design, although they did keep horizontal stabilizers on it and vertical ones aren’t as angled as they were on the YF-23. Pratt and Whitney developed new engines, used by both prototypes, and they allowed them supersonic cruise speed without afterburners, very important factor that affects the fuel consumption and therefore the range and obviously the speed of the aircraft, and it’s something that the Russians are struggling to this day to develop, at least before we see the new Izdeliye 30 engines entering service. Anyway… YF-23 was to be faster than the YF-22, but lacked thrust vectoring control in the engine nozzles, while the exhaust itself was made with special materials to dissipate heat helping the aircraft maintain it’s stealth capabilities. Now that we’re at it, YF-23 was actually stealthier aircraft than the YF-22, which as we all know led to F-22 which is extremely stealthy and wasn’t surpassed in performance to this day. Another thing that helped the Black widow II, was the design of the intakes. You see, engines were positioned slightly higher than the air intakes on the front, so this would allow for the S shaped intakes and compressor blades were completely hidden. In normal circumstances, radar waves can deflect in a way that would allow the operator to detect the aircraft more easily, and this choice again helped the low-radar signature performance. Internal bay was to be able to carry 6 air to air missiles with possible hardpoints on the wings, just like the F-22 has nowadays, however, YF-23 had only one weapons bay in the mid lower fuselage unlike the F-22 which has 2 more smaller ones carrying AIM-9X. So with all this long list of specs and the potential it had, what went wrong?