YF-23 Photo in UK Flight International Magazine.

In the march issue of flight International, there is a picture of a development model.

It has the wings, tails, and shaping of a YF-23, but, has non-thrust vectoring nozzles, and circular air inlets semi buried under the wing chines.

There is a funny story behind the pictures leaking, as a person put the model up for sale on e-bay. It was almost instantly withdrawn from sale, and the pictures erased, but, Flight International have a picture of it, and as aircraft go, this one looks real nice.

The Pentagon issued a terse no comment.

So, it seems that rumours were true, and also explains why the two gate guard yf-23's have gone awol.

It was model of Northrop FB-23 bomber, highly modified YF-23A. It is one of proposals to USAF Interim Bomber initiative. Pics at:

www.hitechweb.szm.sk/futurebombers1.htm

MY BAYBEE IS GONNA COME BACK!! woooohoooo!!!! long live the FB-23!!! it looks even sexier than before!

Originally posted by GrOuNd_ZeRo
MY BAYBEE IS GONNA COME BACK!! woooohoooo!!!! long live the FB-23!!! it looks even sexier than before!

Amen to that. The YF-23 is simply one of the best looking planes ever to take to the air and it was a shame it was not selected. There is strong evidence to support this. One of the two remaining planes was at Edwards Flight Test Museum and is no longer there and the one the Wester Museum of Flight in Hawthorne, Ca is on extended loan back to Northrop. Coincidence? I think Not!

I saw the other YF-23 - it's currently (well, as of last summer) in the restoration area of the USAFM - i'll try to find a pic!

here we go....

What the HELL! there is an engine next to it!!

They must be putting engines in and fitting delta wings!

[edit on 27/3/2005 by GrOuNd_ZeRo]

Originally posted by GrOuNd_ZeRo
What the HELL! there is an engine next to it!!

They must be putting engines in and fitting delta wings!

[edit on 27/3/2005 by GrOuNd_ZeRo]

You might notice that there is also what looks like a radial prop engine in the background - spose they are putting that in it too?

(my point is that just because theres an engine by it in at photo doesnt mean anything. Its a museum hanger, and usually lots of disparate things are stored in close proximity to each other.)

It would be really nice to see the YF-23 flying again, it really was a beautiful aircraft.

It looks like an unfinished Airfix model in that picture, what with all that filler round the cockpit (assuming thats what it is of course). Is filler radar absorbant?

Richard price--you're right--that things been sitting there for awhile it seems and the engine is just another piece of equiptment pushed-up-close to it burying it. But, maybe someday.

Yes waynos you have now discovered the secret of high end stealth.... In a brilliant move Lockheed has in conjunction with auto body workers nationwide managed to keep the awesome potential of what we auto body guys like to call Bondo secret for almost 25 years.

Not to burst any bubbles, because I agree it would be nice to see that aircraft get some service....

However, noting the pic above, I can guarantee you that motors being prepared for any type of service whatsoever, would not be stored on bedmatresses! This looks to me like a picture of a mothballed airplane...Not to say that the structural integrity of the airframe isn't intact, and couldn't be used for a future project's development.....

They love their mattresses there! They can put large aircraft parts on 'em and they save them from damage, put them between parts to protect them from each other.

The engine in front is one of the 23's units - you can just about make out the vectoring vane box at the rear!

Here's another pic from the other side...



hope you like!


[edit on 29/3/05 by Dew]

just had to post this - back in their former glory, the 2 birds looking fine!



higher res one here

at first I didn't like the look of the plane...But it kinda grows on you.

However...If I could change any part of the plane, it would be the deformed cockpit glass.

Kyle, why do you 'spose they took off the wings then?

The YF-23 has ALWAYS been my favorite plane, i'm kinda sad so many others like it...

Originally posted by GrOuNd_ZeRo
Kyle, why do you 'spose they took off the wings then?

The YF-23 has ALWAYS been my favorite plane, i'm kinda sad so many others like it...

Ease of storage? An aircraft with the wings off takes up a lot less room than it does with the wings on.

the wings would have been removed for shipping - very common when moving aircraft to/between museums.

Check this about one of my other favourite planes....

"The Army re-designated the first ship the XB-42A. It first flew with the jet pods at Muroc Dry Lake (later Edwards Air Force Base), California, on May 27, 1947. The airplane continued to fly and return useful test data until the Air Force permanently grounded it on September 23, 1948. The aircraft was transferred to the National Air Museum storage center at Park Ridge, Illinois. In February 1952, as war raged in Korea, the collection was moved with great urgency to Suitland, Maryland. According to legend, any airplane too large to fit a standard railroad car was sized to fit, using a cutting torch! The staff at Park Ridge cut off the wings just outside of the radiator air intakes. The wings were discarded and lost but the fuselage of this interesting design is preserved in the National Air and Space Museum's collection."

from www.nasm.si.edu...

criminal!

reminds me of a funny story from a guy i used to work with, back when he was working on the SR-71 they were getting ready to start decommisioning a few of em and send em out to a bunch of museums. Well the contract team hired to move em went to try and cut off the wings so it could fit in the cargo plane, took them over 2 hours to figure out that a cutting torch would barely even mess up the paint let alone cut anything. they eventually had to go out and buy some special plasma cutter even then it took them days on what would normally be a couple hour job

Doesn't suprise me they chose the YF-23 for the bomber version. The YF-23 was comfortably faster than the F-22 even on supercruise, the F-16 and F-15 chase aircraft had to use after burner just to keep up with it on normal power, it was also stealthier (apparently, obviously I can't clarify this) it was mostly let down because it wasn't as good in a turning fight against the F-22 and it was more of a production risk because it was so much more advanced than the fairly conventional (relatively speaking!) F-22.