THE F-23 BLACK WIDOW/GRAY GHOST

This is the plane which the USAF should have chosen
as their next-generation fighter – not the F-22, which
I don’t think very highly of.

The Black Widow/Gray Ghost has everything one would
look for in a future-generation air superiority aircraft :

Stealth (superb parallelogram wings and ruddervators,
a critical stealth factor missing in the F-22, which I don’t
think is very stealthy with its relatively conventional
airframe, fins and elevators). The Gray Ghost’s air
intake design deflects radar emissions better, and its
exhausts hide its IR signature very effectively. A very
significant factor in reducing its radar signature must
have been its very well-canted ruddervators, which
would likely have enhanced its agility.

Supercruise performance of around Mach 1.8 or more
with the F120 engines (I remember reading that the
F-22 Raptor reached only about Mach 1.43 on the
F119 engines).

Acceleration – apparently the Gray Ghost’s slippery-
looking aerodynamics enabled it to increase airspeed
very fast.

Perhaps the only negatives would have been the
facts that the Sidewinders were stocked one above
the other in their bays, rendering the both missiles
useless if the lower one failed to launch, and the
lack of thrust vectoring, though Northrop didn’t
deem this to enhance its maneuvrability much.

The engine the USAF should have chosen too should
have been GE’s variable cycle F120, which far
outperformed PW’s F119. In flyoff trials during their
development, both ATF aircraft reached higher
supercruise speeds on the F120. Only the higher
technological risks and maintainability demands was
not in this engine’s favour.

Last but not least, the Gray Ghost was one beautiful
aircraft. The sight of two sinister-looking Gray Ghosts
accelerating upwards on an interception mission must
have been a truly futuristic, breathtaking sight.

I note that Northrop has always made superb aircraft
which due to politics or otherwise, are not selected.
If one were to look for an unmatched lightweight pure
dogfighter, look no further than the F-20 Tigershark
to this day.