Key Points and Summary – The Northrop YF-23 “Black Widow,” the prototype that lost to the F-22 Raptor, was an incredibly fast aircraft.
-With a top speed of Mach 2.2+ and a supercruise speed of Mach 1.6, its performance was a testament to its cutting-edge Pratt & Whitney and General Electric engines.
-While it never entered production, the YF-23’s unique diamond-wing design and ability to maintain stealth at supercruise speeds were revolutionary.
-Its advanced concepts were so successful that they went on to influence the design of the B-21 Raider next-generation stealth bomber, cementing its lasting legacy.
The YF-23 Was a Stealth Speed Machine
We’ve said it umpteen times already, we’ll now say it umpteen-and-one times: “Speed is life,” quoth the fighter pilot’s motto, or as the fictitious then-LT (USN) Pete “Maverick” Mitchell said in the original Top Gun film back in 1986, “I feel the need for speed.” After having previously discussed the speed of (among other warplanes) the Chengdu J-36 and the Boeing F/A-18 Hornet, we now cover the speed of a promising would-be warbird that never made it past the prototype/demonstrator phase: the Northrop (now Northrop Grumman) YF-23 “Black Widow.”
How Fast Was the YF-23?
The YF-23 ultimately lost out to the Lockheed YF-22 in the Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) competition, and the latter became what we now know as the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, the world’s first true stealth fighter to go operational. (Poetically enough, Lockheed Martin’s legendary Skunk Works division had already built the first so-called “stealth fighter” that actually wasn’t a fighter, the F-117 Nighthawk).
But it certainly wasn’t for lack of speed that the “Black Widow II” ended up losing to the future Raptor.
The YF-23 had a max airspeed of Mach 2.2+ and a supercruise speed of Mach 1.6. To put that in perspective, the mere supercruise speed of the Black Widow equaled that of the max airspeed of Skunk Work’s other 5th Generation stealth fighter, the F-35 Lightning II.
How Did the YF-23 Black Widow II Achieve That Speed?
This is made possible by the Pratt & Whitney YF119 and the General Electric (G.E.) YF120-GE-100N afterburning turbofan engines.
Yes, that’s correct, the two Black Widow II specimens that we built used competing brands of jet engines.
Reason being, according to Harper Ellis in an 11 October 2024 for Defense Feeds:
“These engines were cutting-edge at the time and provided the YF-23 with remarkable speed and supercruise capability…Each engine offered distinct advantages in terms of thrust and efficiency…The YF120 engine was a more innovative design, offering a variable-cycle capability that allowed it to switch between high-thrust and fuel-efficient modes. This gave the YF-23 an edge in terms of fuel economy and operational range…The General Electric YF120 was seen as the more advanced of the two engines because it provided better overall fuel efficiency, which contributed to the YF-23’s supercruise ability. However, the Pratt & Whitney YF119 was ultimately selected for the F-22, likely due to its proven reliability and lower risk during the transition to production.”
The YF119 had the following tech specs and vital stats, according to the National Museum of the United States Air Force:
Model: F119-PW-100L
Type: Twin-spool, counter-rotating augmented turbofan
Thrust: 35,000 lb. class with afterburner
Engine Control: Full authority digital electronic control (FADEC)
Nozzle: Two-dimensional vectoring convergent/divergent
Length: 16 ft. 11 in.
As for the YF120 tech specs:
Model: General Electric YF120-GE-100N
Type: Twin-Spool, axial-flow, variable-cycle, augmented turbofan
Thrust: 35,000 lb. class with afterburner
Engine Control: Three-channel FADEC system
Nozzle: Single-expansion ramp nozzle (SERN)n
Length: 13 ft. 10 in
What Else Made the YF-23 Special?
Other distinctive features of the Black Widow II included the ability to maintain stealth capability while achieving the aforementioned supercruise speed, as well as diamond-shaped wings and a V-tail configuration that were not only aesthetically unique but also contributed to its stealth and aerodynamic efficiency.
YF-23 Legacy
Though those two Black Widow IIs exist now as mere static displays preserved for posterity in aviation history museums (the Western Museum of Flight at Zamperini Field in Torrance, California in addition to the aforementioned National Museum of the United States Air Force), the legacy of the YF-23 lives on today in other ways.
For example, the YF-23 design is credited as being influential upon the design of a current Northrop Grumman product that appears to be well on its way to a far greater degree of success, the B-21 Raider 6th Generation strategic bomber, the direct successor to the company’s battle-proven 4th Generation B-2 Spirit (the original “stealth bomber”).
A fitting epitaph for the YF-23 was provided by test pilot Paul Metz, the only man who had the honor and privilege of flying both it *and* the YF-22: “Never hang your head in shame about what we did. We built a tremendous product that would stand side-by-side with anything else, and in many cases, exceed the capabilities of anything else. And we can always be proud of that.”
Just recently, National Security Journal went out to visit the YF-23 at the U.S. Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. You can see a video from that visit in this article.
About the Author: Christian D. Orr, Defense Expert
Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU).
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