F-22 Raptor vs YF-23 Black Widow II: The Stealthier Jet Lost the Fly-Off

What each jet is

The F-22 Raptor is the Air Force’s only operational fifth-generation air superiority fighter. It grew out of the Lockheed YF-22, which flew on 29 September 1990, and the production F-22A first flew on 7 September 1997.

The YF-23 Black Widow II was Northrop and McDonnell Douglas’s entry in the same contest. The Air Force wanted a replacement for the F-15 under the Advanced Tactical Fighter program, and two teams built flying prototypes to compete for it.

Northrop built two. PAV-1, nicknamed “Gray Ghost,” flew first on 27 August 1990 with Pratt & Whitney engines. PAV-2, nicknamed “Spider,” flew on 26 October 1990 with General Electric engines.

“Black Widow II” is the jet’s unofficial name, a nod to Northrop’s World War II P-61 Black Widow.

The 1991 fly-off: why the stealthier jet lost

Lockheed and Northrop were picked as the two finalists on 31 October 1986. Each team received about $691 million (in 1985 dollars) and 50 months to build and demonstrate prototypes.

On 23 April 1991, Air Force Secretary Donald Rice announced the winner: the YF-22 team.

The YF-23 was judged stealthier and faster. The YF-22 was judged more agile, and Lockheed scored better on its technical ratings, its program management and its perceived risk.

The YF-23 also flew less. The two prototypes made 50 sorties totaling 65.2 hours, considerably fewer than the YF-22 team flew.

Some accounts add that Northrop’s cost overruns and delays on the B-2 bomber and the AGM-137 TSSAM missile hurt its case. That is speculation, not a published finding of the decision.

Edge: YF-22 team, on the record. It won the contract.

Stealth and shape

The YF-23 was built around stealth. It has a diamond-shaped wing with edges swept 40 degrees front and back, and two all-moving V-tails angled 50 degrees from vertical.

Its engine inlets are S-shaped ducts that hide the compressor faces from radar. Its exhaust runs along troughs on top of the rear fuselage, which shield the heat from sensors below.

The F-22 uses more conventional shaping, with twin canted vertical tails and horizontal stabilizers. It is stealthy by any normal measure, but the YF-23 was judged ahead of it on this one.

Edge: YF-23, as judged in the 1991 evaluation.

Speed and supercruise

Both jets could cruise faster than sound without afterburners, a trait called supercruise. The YF-23 PAV-1 reached Mach 1.43 on 18 September 1990. PAV-2 passed Mach 1.6 on 29 November 1990, and topped out at Mach 1.72 in supercruise.

The YF-22 reached Mach 1.58 in supercruise. The production F-22 cruises at about Mach 1.5 at 50,000 ft (15,200 m).

So the prototype YF-23 had a small edge in the tests. The production F-22 has since been flown by real squadrons for years, which no YF-23 ever was.

Edge: YF-23 in the prototype tests, F-22 as a fielded aircraft.

Agility and thrust vectoring

This is where the YF-22 won ground. The production F-22 has rectangular 2D nozzles that swivel 20 degrees up or down, which lets it point its nose faster than a conventional jet.

The YF-23 had no thrust vectoring. Its tests reached a maximum angle of attack of 25 degrees, and its designers traded maneuverability for stealth and speed.

That choice is the heart of the old debate. The YF-23 was closer to a long-range interceptor, and the F-22 was the better dogfighter.

Edge: F-22, for thrust vectoring and agility.

Engines: two choices, one winner

The ATF contest was also an engine contest. Each team flew prototypes with a choice of two engines, the Pratt & Whitney YF119 and the General Electric YF120.

Northrop flew one of each: PAV-1 used the YF119 and PAV-2 used the YF120. Lockheed did the same with its two YF-22s.

The Air Force chose the Pratt & Whitney engine, and the production F-22 flies on its descendant, the F119. The General Electric YF120 did not go into production.

Edge: even, since the YF-23 flew with both engines and the F-22 uses the one that won.

What happened to each program

The F-22 went on to 195 airframes, including 8 test aircraft. It entered service in December 2005 and made its combat debut in Syria in 2014.

Congress has banned F-22 exports in annual appropriations acts since fiscal 1998, so no foreign air force has one. Production ended in 2011 after a program cost of about $67.3 billion.

The YF-23 never entered service. A Navy version, the NATF-23, was proposed as an F-14 replacement in December 1990, but the Navy dropped its program by fiscal 1992 over cost.

Northrop Grumman later pitched an FB-23 bomber in 2004, which ended with the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review. It also answered Japan’s 2018 fighter solicitation, and Japan did not proceed.

Edge: F-22, since it is the one that flew in combat.

Where you can see a YF-23 today

Both prototypes survive. PAV-1, the Gray Ghost, is in the Research and Development hangar of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force near Dayton, Ohio.

PAV-2, the Spider, is at the Western Museum of Flight in Torrance, California.

Could the YF-23 have been better?

Fans have argued this for three decades. The YF-23 was stealthier and faster, but it was also unproven in the air for far fewer hours, and it had no thrust vectoring.

No one can say how a production YF-23 would have performed, because none was built. The record shows only what the two prototypes did in 1990, and what the Air Force decided in 1991.

Who wins: F-22 or YF-23?

The F-22 wins as an aircraft, because it is a finished fighter with radar, weapons and years of service. The YF-23 never had the chance to be one.

As a design, it is a closer call. The YF-23 was stealthier and faster, and the F-22 was more agile. The Air Force bet on agility and a lower-risk program, and the Raptor is the result.