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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...
Posted (edited)

Very nice, where was this?  Langley?  FF tailsign would indicate that, but suspect FF tailsign fly all  over the place.

Interesting, the canopy is transparent, the last time I saw -22 was in Honolulu, it had a gold cockpit.

Edited by kalvasflam
Posted

Still looks gold to me from the side, might just be dependent on the lighting and atmosphere around.

I forget if we saw one on display out here or not, but I know I've seen one or two at Edwards before.

Posted

This was at the Duluth show. 

It was parked just so, that you could see individual skin panels "turn silver" as the sun slowly moved.  

Doubly rare that it was a front-line squadron's plane on display, not an OT/Test-Eval etc one.  

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

I remember hearing in a random video or magazine article or something that in response to a late ATF requirement, McDonnell drafted up designs for a thrust vectoring YF-23. Anyone know if this is the case and/or if it ever made it to any form of visual representation? Getting a model or a Ace Combat mod based on even prototype artwork would be cool to see.

Posted
1 hour ago, kajnrig said:

I remember hearing in a random video or magazine article or something that in response to a late ATF requirement, McDonnell drafted up designs for a thrust vectoring YF-23. Anyone know if this is the case and/or if it ever made it to any form of visual representation? Getting a model or a Ace Combat mod based on even prototype artwork would be cool to see.

In short, sort of.  The original ATF requirement called for thrust reversers and that was pulled late on, so the YF-22 never had them, but the first YF-23 did.  The second one did not, and because of the lost weight could outrun pretty much everything else.  A thrust vectoring F-23A and NATF were drawn up and proposed during and after the competition.
Why was the YF-23 not turned into a Naval fighter like the YF-17 was turned  into the Hornet? - Quora

Posted

Oh wow, that is a funky-looking design, not at all what I expected. I thought it would basically just make the bottom exhaust look like the top so you'd have this like three-pronged tail end sticking out the back with the exhaust nozzles seeming to be set into the airframe. 

Posted
58 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

Oh wow, that is a funky-looking design, not at all what I expected. I thought it would basically just make the bottom exhaust look like the top so you'd have this like three-pronged tail end sticking out the back with the exhaust nozzles seeming to be set into the airframe. 

So the one of the left is the Production F-23A concept.  It would not have had thrust vectoring, focusing more on stealth and speed (YF-23-2 was so slick and fast nothing could catch it, not even the chase F-15).  A thrust vectoring F-23B(?) was discussed at NG but never made it far because they lost the ATF Competition.  The NATF concept is on the right, and had a couple of iterations, that is the first one, with canards (super sexy) and thrust vectoring.  The later iterations ditched the canards but were externally pretty similar.

Thrust Vectoring was never a requirement for the ATF Competition.  But, LM put a lot of research and development into it so incorporated that into the (Y)F-22 because they wanted to give it more agility.  ANd it added an extra wow factor at the competition.

Posted

I've wanted a 1/72 EMD F-23A forever.  Die cast, kit, whatever.  

 

Posted
On 7/10/2024 at 10:32 AM, MKT said:

Don't really know where to put this, as we don't have a diecast aircraft thread. But I'm pretty excited that a 1/72 diecast YF-23 is finally getting made. Always wanted one as a companion piece ever since picking up a Yammie YF-21 years ago.

https://x.com/specialdiecast1/status/1808441574063259861


img_5906-high.webp.996d54ea82e3da1f2ba3563606250fa0.webp

img_5760-high-4q3o6q.webp.d9d238038bb098cf3e68aa4454949b2c.webp

img_5761-high.webp.b644794378f6d7efa6d25ce888202a26.webp

img_5762-high.webp.457a51e23c3ce76e8ee1facc56b0e6a7.webp

I've always been tempted by Hobby Masters, but when holding the final product, I don't feel the $100.00 plus pirce-tag, and the quality of the pilots and missiles most times is borderline bootleg looking.

But this, in diecast, is hard to pass up on. It will be great if they go the extra mile by adding the missile bays... 

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted (edited)
5 hours ago, electric indigo said:

brrrt summer

s16TZsR.jpeg

This summer’s got me burnt out, I’m ready for Ernie winterIMG_2791.jpeg.e3a2a4a316008a51b8ab961a19f2e940.jpeggonna watch some Airwolf by the air conditioner 

Edited by Big s
  • 5 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
Posted
2 hours ago, electric indigo said:

Are the pylons pointing outwards?

Yes, always have, it is just more obvious with larger weapons.
With those on it handles like a pig however, figure they are just shy of 2000lbs each.

Posted
15 hours ago, David Hingtgen said:

Finally a Phoenix fleet-defense successor:

IMG_3911.jpeg

Nice publicity pic, but in reality, I doubt you'll ever see the Superhornet carrying more than two of these at a time in anything other than full-on war. It might be able to take-off with that loading, but it sure can't land with it, especially on a carrier at sea with a pitching deck.

Posted

The Tomcat couldn't do that if I recall, at least not the early ones with six Phoenix(es?) due to carrier weight landing limits.

I know the missiles are getting all the attention, but thats not a Hornet colour scheme one sees often is it?

Posted
28 minutes ago, F-ZeroOne said:

The Tomcat couldn't do that if I recall, at least not the early ones with six Phoenix(es?) due to carrier weight landing limits.

I know the missiles are getting all the attention, but thats not a Hornet colour scheme one sees often is it?

That's Vandy-1, it is a bird that flies pretty exclusively out of CHina Lake for flight test purposes.  The coolest flight test bird flying.

  • 4 weeks later...

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