Could it be one of the late WW2 German glide bombs? Look at the wind tip extensions. Are those flares to help with flight orientation for the command guidance?

you cannot have exceptional values of agility plus stealth at one stroke, you have to sacrifice something..

There is a sacrifice in the F-22 that gives it the stealth and agility it’s known for. It’s called Money. The USAF wanted the best performer in stealth, agility, and economical speed, apparently withouot regard to price. That’s what it got. IMHO, it’ll be well worth it the first time it’s needed. If it’s never needed then I’d chalk that up to the price of keeping the US safe.

Who are you quoting anyway?

The radar signature of the F-22 is improperly reported to the GAO and The Congress.Only a single data number is provided to congressional committees and the GAO—the average radar signature in the level forward direction within 20 degrees off the nose, presumably to enemy fighter radars.

That’s the idea of shaping for stealth. The lowest possible RCS is from a head on aspect, so the head on aspect has become the de-facto measurement. You can’t eliminate radar returns in every aspect, but you can lessen them enough to shorten the range at which an enemy gets a usable return off of you. A competant Raptor pilot is not going to be supercruising around giving the Foxhound a quartering shot- especially since that high power, long range radar will be highlighting it’s position to the raptor WAY before the Foxhound gets a return of the Raptor.

Fighters cruising supersonically are beacons in the sky to the various infrared sensors. Ramming the air at high speed and generating supersonic shock waves creates temperature differentials impossible to hide.

For 4th generation fighter which must use an afterburner to go supersonic (with a usable weapons load) this is true, but it is less of an issue for a Raptor as the dry thrust from it’s engines emits less IR energy. Aerodynamic heating of leading edges etc. from continued supersonic flight may be useful for terminal guidance of IR missles, but it’s not enough alone to detect a aircraft at a great enough distance to put your long range weapons advantage to use. Also tactics again also help reduce this vulnerablility, which when combined with lower radar observability will in most case enable an Raptor to keep it’s most detectable emission shielded as much as possible. Most of the time the Raptor pilot will know where his enemy is before the other pilot detects him and will have manuevered into the most advantageous position both offensively and defensively.

Fighters, with radar to search for and find enemy fighters autonomously, at long ranges, cannot hide their high powered electric emissions to modern, sophisticated, Russian equipment. The Russians excel at this art and export their equipment to many nations.

Whomever said this has no idea about modern A-A combat tactics. Most fighters- especially western fighters (but not exclusively) today do not openly broadcast their position with their onboard radar all the time. They rely on AWACS or ground radar when available to detect and vector them into the best position for their on board systems to take over. This is even more so for the Raptor. The radar equiping it will be powerful and extremely capable, but most of the time it won’t be used or if it is, it’ll be in a low probability of intercept mode reducing the range at which it will give away the Raptors position. In cases where the Raptor is operating in a radar picket situation, there’s likely others waiting to pounce that are radar silent. The first indication an enemy would likely have is when it’s onboard missle warning equipment detects the flash of the missle firing or when the AMRAAM goes active, which by then it’s WAY too late in a Foxhound.

Further, F-22 detection of enemies by radar is an inverse fourth power phenomenon, while detection of the F-22’s radar is an inverse square phenomenon, giving the advantage to the enemy.

And this doesn’t apply to the Foxhound too? It should apply moreso since the APG-77 at least has a LPI operating mode.

You and many F-22-rules fans may disagree but everyone has a right to have a opinion……..

But when those opinions are based upon incorrect or biased info, then those opinions deserve to be refuted. The facts speak for themselves- The only time a Foxhound would likely get the best of a Raptor would be if the Raptor was on fire, jammers active, radar blaring, flying subsonic, all alone, on the Foxhounds home turf. In that impossible situation a P-51 could probably know down a Raptor.

Plus there’s a maneuverability penalty having that much weight so far away from the roll axis.

Here’s a couple.

Radar Images

Third, there were some problems with the shape of engine nacelles of the Widow, for some reasons they should have been greatly reduced in shape. Anybody knows more?

The only engine nacelle related issues I heard about the 23 was the fact that it still had provisions for thrust reversers which, while an early requirement, were later dropped.

Fourth, looking at my pics of YF-23 cockpit, it is light years behind the YF-22 concept, that is what I have to admit.. Basically F-15E layout sans central display. Really nothing to write home about.

Still- this was just the concept, not the final product. Same as the X-35- basic instruments to perform the testing and a far cry from the final product.

BTW, the JSF engine is said to be a further improvement of F120 so there is no reason to cry for this engine.

The alternate JSF engine is F120 based. The production engine that most of the 35’s will be equipped with will be the F135 based on the F119.

Looking forward to building my 1/48th kit, damn, what a beaut’…

Which kit do you have? I’ve been looking for 1/48 scale kits for the 22, 23, and 35.

THAM, The end result of the flyoff between the YF-22 and YF-23 was that both aircraft met or exceeded the requirements with the 23 having slight advantages in stealth and top speed, while the 22 had the advantages in maneuverability, weapons carriage (not qty, just no stacked missles) and was less of a risk design-wise.

The same thing happened with the F-119 and F-120 with the 120 having slightly better performance, but used unproven and Potentially unreliable technology (variable bypass ratio)

During the flyoff, I too wanted the YF-23 to win, but either way the USAF and select allies will still be getting a fine aircraft.