YF-23

The general consensus seems to be centered around the YF-22 being more agile, more conventional, and having fewer structural concerns.

The YF-23's biggest long-term problem was the layout of the weapons bays, which left a large longitudinal space in the fuselage that would have been the cause of structural problems over the lifetime of the aircraft.

and the happy plane? why didn't it win?

>>33801885
Lift fan was way better

Unfortunately it was patented and there wasn't really an option that could hope to compete

>>33801698
yf-23 had a structural problem that was never fixed in the spine of the aircraft just rear of the end of the cockpit which would wear and crack much quicker. it was a fundamental design flaw

also the yf-22 was already doing livefire weapons tests while the yf-23 was just starting tests on it's landing gear. also the engine originally intended for the yf-23 hadn't been delivered and fell through so they were forced to use the f119 of the yf-22

>>33801885
Conventional lift fan in the same design as the Harrier with little to no performance increases, had problems with exhaust ingestion that made it dangerous

One-piece wing that they never got to work right at all, cracked and would have to be completely redesigned

Far far far behind the X-35 in terms of progress in development

Design would have to rely on shit-tier radar blockers, and would have never been as stealthy as the X-35/F-35

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>>33801698
The yf23 was insanely fast compared to the yf22 at the time(variable bypass engines).
It could sustain higher G turns.
And was far more stable at high speeds.

The issues were:
1. It didn't look like a traditional fighter
2. Weapon bays were weird
3. RCS was higher due to the canopy and compressor blades.
4. Was more expensive
5. Airframe would have required more maintenance (kinda dumb considering how little flight time f22s get)

The chairforce didn't choose it for a few reasons.
1. More expensive
2. The AF really wanted a super f15 and the f22 fit that bill better.
3. northrop grumman was having a hard time making B2 deliveries at the time. The military wants their shit on time.

But it's ok, I heard from an engineer the 6th gen fighter will be YF23 based.

>>33802001
Fanboy propaganda

>>33801885
The X-32 often suffered from "breathing" hot air exhaust into the engine, resulting in a poor amount of power being produced, and overheating the engine.

The X-32 at one point had to undergo a re-design, because the Navy had refined it's requirments. The delta-wing style fell short of the new requirments, and a conventional tail design was chosen for production aircraft. This design however was too late to be incorperated into the original design, so both demonstraters kept the delta-wing style.

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>>33801885
Because it was a piece of shit. The X-32 effectively used the same lift system as the Harrier, which put it far behind the X-35 both in terms of VTOL performance and in terms of the configuration. The X-32's lift system forced Boeing to put the engine at the center of gravity, forcing them to have the inlet in the unusual configuration they chose and just generally making it handle unusually compared to a normal fighter. The lift system itself was so underwhelming compared to Lockheed's lift fan that the X-32 could not break the sound barrier in its STOVL form, and it required several parts to be switched out for supersonic flight. Meanwhile, the X-35 could take off vertically, break the sound barrier, and land vertically all in a single flight. There were also airflow issues with the STOVL variant relating to hot gas ingestion.

And that's not even getting into other problems, like the one-piece composite wing that had manufacturing issues, or the fact that the X-32 didn't meet agility requirements, so the entire Boeing pitch was pretty much
>hey if you contract us with this piece of shit prototype we promise that the completely different plane we actually build won't completely suck

The X-32 would have pretty much been every meme about the F-35 come to life.

>>33802001
Nothing in this is correct or true.