WT Forums

several years ago, the USAF put a tender out for a new strike fighter, two rival designs as we know were put forwards, the Northrop YF23 Black Widow II and the YF22, though at this point I cant recall the manufacturer.

both had super cruise ability, both had good payload, and both had the stealth factor the USAF was looking for, and judging by the shape of the two, Id say the YF23 Black widow II was the stealthier of the two.

why did it loose out to the smaller F22? any ideas?

<img src="http://www.boomspeed.com/megazone23/su27.jpg" border=0>

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US

Northrop had B-2 production, the design needed serious modifications before entering into service, lacked thrust-vectoring, had issues with the missile bays becoming useless if the first missile refused to launch, and was considered the riskier of the two designs to develop further. The two biggest considerations in modern contracts isn't capability or performance, but development risk and cost.

"Now that he had recognized himself as a dead man it became important to stay alive as long as possible."
George Orwell, 1984

Mr. Rich wanted to make a large number of smaller bombers but Northrop made less but had bigger amount of payload. the AF chose the B-2 because it didn't want to put in the large inferstructure for a larger number of bombers, it would cost more to create the wings and deploy.

<img src="http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/research/bombers/b5/b62-7.jpg" border=0>
overthere? naw, we'll kill 'em from here.