Originally posted by JIMC5499
I have a pretty good source that says that it all came down to looks. The Air Force chose pretty over functionality.

Sounds like the Air Force had their beer goggles on if that's the case. I think the F-23 is a much sexier, sleek looking aircraft.

My personal view in relation to YF-22/YF-23 and why the Lockheed jet won is that in order to understand Donald Rice's decision one must have an appreciation of American politics and realize that very few DoD acquisition decisions are made in isolation, or purely on technical grounds. Anyone wanting a definitive reason as to why Lockheed won would have to have access to inside info and have to have been present at some selected AIAA presentations. A couple of oral presentations at AIAA were made by people directly involved in the ATF programme. The final decision process was deliberately set up to permit Donald to make a decision based on more than just technical merit. There was a system of 'red/yellow/green' lights used to rate various aspects of each proposal. The AF evaluation team was restrained from being able to recommend any particular team. Even though there was a very high level of technical emphasis placed on the ATF contract up to Dem/Val and decision time, I think Donald spent more time thinking about economic risk and management issues rather than technical competence. I suspect that Lockheed's track record of superior 'diplomacy' in regards to courting and lobbying government officials allowed it to gain far more attention than other companies who played the same game. I believe that Lockheed was better 'connected'.

I have updated my YF-23 site. Details can be found here: (cutnpaste) twitter.com/#!/yf23net

New F-23 info from upship.com just released. Details here: twitter.com/#!/yf23net