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.

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 ...