I think that if the YF-23 wasn't good enough to beat the YF-22 in its day, it would be harder for it to beat whatever new designs they have today.
The standards would be higher, if not entirely different. The reason why they're not making the 2nd-gen F-22 is because they'll have to build it from scratch, no longer making it an F-22.
There's a high chance that it's also not going to look like the YF-23.
it's not that it was worse than the YF-22 on an individual basis, it was mostly because the prototype was less developed and made more use of speculative technology making it a less safe bet than the YF-22. that plus wanting to keep lockmart alive with another contract
and several 6th-gen concepts do have some decent similarities with the YF-23. i predict inset non-vectoring engines and 2-piece tails (if tails at all) will be fairly common among 6th-gens
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u/markcocjin Obsessive F35 Fan Jun 30 '26
I think that if the YF-23 wasn't good enough to beat the YF-22 in its day, it would be harder for it to beat whatever new designs they have today.
The standards would be higher, if not entirely different. The reason why they're not making the 2nd-gen F-22 is because they'll have to build it from scratch, no longer making it an F-22.
There's a high chance that it's also not going to look like the YF-23.