At first glance, YF-23A looks like a retired SR-7 1 reconnaissance plane, but its actual appearance is very complicated. YF-23A adopts the stealth principle of B-2 aircraft, with a sharp delta wing and maneuvering flaps at the front and rear edges. The leading edge of one wing is parallel to the trailing edge of the other wing (including the tail wing), and the plane shape of the tail wing is serrated like B-2; Two F 1 19 engines are buried in two shell-shaped protrusions at the rear of the fuselage, and the air inlet is S-shaped, which effectively shields the oncoming radar wave emission from the engine compressor, and the adjustable slot shape is a nozzle to minimize infrared radiation; YF-23A adopts butterfly tail, which is far away. It is both an elevator and a rudder. The camber angle is about 40 degrees. Butterfly tail is beneficial to stealth (like F- 1 17 stealth fighter) and can always maintain good maneuverability when maneuvering at high angle of attack. Built-in weapon suspension system, the lower surface of the fuselage is flat, which is beneficial to stealth and drag reduction. The cockpit cover is designed in the shape of a bubble, with low resistance, high cockpit position and very forward position, and the pilot's vision is very good.
Wingspan13.3m, captain 20.6m, aircraft height 4.3m and wing area 87.7m2.. Empty weight 16783 kg, normal takeoff weight 23500 kg and maximum takeoff weight 29029 kg. The speed is 2200 km/h, the ceiling is 20000 m, and the operational radius is 1200km. Advanced medium-range air-to-air missile guided by radar, infrared guided air-to-air missile guided by rattlesnake, 20 mm six-barrel gun.
Northrop Grumman recently announced the design of the FB-23 "Fast Zone Attack" strike platform as a candidate for the US Air Force transition bomber. The company also revealed that the FB-23 will be built on the basis of the YF-23 fighter that the company once lost, so the FB-23 will be a continuation of the YF-23. Lockheed Martin has put forward FB-22, a derivative of F/A-22, as a "regional bomber" to participate in the competition, and they once again competed on the same stage. In addition, Boeing also put forward the "R" type improvement scheme of B 1 to participate in the competition.
In April, 2004, the US Air Force proposed to develop a transition bomber, which rekindled the hopes of many fans of Northrop Grumman (formerly Northrop had merged with ATF competitor Grumman) and YF-23. Northrop Grumman Company put forward an improved F/B-23 scheme based on any YF-23A, and specially requested the PAV-2 spider, which is still kept in the Western Flight Museum in Hawthorne. It seems that he intends to fly the plane again to verify the relevant technology of F/B-23.
The design idea of YF-23A is close to the concept of "interceptor/bomber". Therefore, the tender for the transformation bomber of the US Air Force can be said to be just right, and the modification of YF-23A will be easier to meet the requirements. According to the requirements of the bomber, the internal bomb bay of YF-23A is too small and the internal bomb load is insufficient. However, the internal volume of the aircraft is insufficient, which makes the amount of fuel on board limited and can not meet the endurance requirements. Therefore, the improvement of F/B-23 will mainly focus on these two aspects. In fact, this limitation of YF-23A stems from the pursuit of low supersonic drag-in order to meet the transonic area rule as much as possible, its fuselage is designed to be quite slender. As long as the middle and rear sections of the fuselage are enlarged and thickened at the expense of supersonic resistance (similar to the MiG -29S "fat back" type), the increased internal volume will be enough to meet the fuel loading requirements of weapon cabins and aircraft. Judging from the current F/B-23 imaginary map, Northrop Grumman took this road. The cost of this improved method is much lower than that of F/B-22 tailless delta wing proposed by Lockheed Martin.