Dave Majumdar, National Interest: Stealth War: F-23 Stealth Fighter vs. the F-22 Raptor (Who Wins?)
The final operational version of the F-23 would have offered much better range than the Raptor—especially at supersonic speeds—especially if powered by the YF120. That would have come in handy over the Pacific. It would also have been stealthier and it would have been almost as maneuverable as the Raptor—or possibly more so at different speeds and altitudes.
In 1991, Lockheed won the Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) competition and went on to develop the stealthy world beating F-22 Raptor air superiority fighter.
While in many ways, Northrop’s losing YF-23 was a much better design, but the U.S. Air Force chose the Lockheed aircraft because it believed that company would better manage the development program—and because the service thought the Raptor would cost less.
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Update: Should the Air Force Have Picked the F-23 Instead of the F-22? (Popular Mechanics)
WNU Editor: Regrets?
I followed the competition between he YF-22 and YF-23 as closely as I could through aviation week magazine. The superior plane was the YF-23. But lower costs of research and production won out. Probably for the best. We ended up with only 183 of the F-22. One wonders how short we'd be if the winning design was the F-23
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