‘THE AIR FORCE
INTENTIONALLY
SEPARATED THE TWO
TEAMS PHYSICALLY
IN THE SENSE
THAT WE WERE
NOT ALLOWED TO
COMMUNICATE WITH
EACH OTHER’
PAUL METZ
as Chief Test Pilot of the YF-22 got together
before we ever ew and said that since we
were using the same engines there was a
chance that something would come up
that could a ect both teams. We said that if
we did have a problem that we knew could
a ect both teams, we would get with the
other respective test pilot and tell them
what’s going on and what the problem
was so that we could investigate it before
anything bad happened. So we did have
a gentlemen’s agreement, a professional
agreement, so we could communicate in
terms of safety of ight.’
Metz took the YF-23 aloft a month prior
to Ferguson in the YF-22, of that event he
says: ‘We were kept away — not allowed to
observe it.’
He continues: ‘We had a very short
programme; about 90 days to wring themRAPTOR^116-15 YF-22 Development C.indd 11 28/09/2017 14: