The Northrop YF-23 “Black Widow II,” a prototype developed for the US Air Force’s Advanced Tactical Fighter competition in the late 1980s, showcased a radical stealth design with diamond-shaped wings, ...

The YF-23 competed in the Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program during the Cold War but lost to Lockheed’s YF-22, which became the F-22 Raptor. The YF-23 was admired for its stealth ...

Back then, I thought that if an icon of General Yeager’s iconic status and influence was plugging the YF-23, it would be a surefire bet to win the ATF contract. But it was not meant to be.

When the Air Force commissioned the ATF, they wanted to bring the most radical aerodynamic designs forward and combine it with high-speed and total stealth. The YF-23 was stealthier and faster ...

The distinctive, rhomboid-winged YF-23A lost out to Lockheed Martin's YF-22 in the ATF competition in 1991 ... to the interim bomber RFI, and the YF-23 is one". Other contenders include a ...

In a new article, the National Interest looks back at the Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) competition ... since then have argued that Northrop's YF-23 was truly the better plane.

Northrop's YF-23 was first to fly ... Whitney's YF119 engine were selected by the Air Force as winners of the ATF in April 1991. Low-rate initial production of the fighter, designated the F ...

Credit: Illustration by Colin Throm/AW&ST based on drawings by Darold B. Cummings/ForzAero. When the U.S. Air Force announced Boeing as the winner of the Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter ...