‘We called it ‘The Yeager e ect’. In his book,
Chuck Yeager talks about getting into an
argument in his squadron about what was
a better airplane — the Focke-Wulf 190
or the P-51. Yeager said ‘well we’ve got a
captured Fw190, let’s go try them out.’ So
he went out and ew against another guy
in the P-51, with Yeager in the Fw190. They
ew a mock dog ght and Yeager won. They
came back and said: ‘what does that tell
you? The Fw190 is a better airplane?’ They
swapped and Yeager whipped him again,
this time with the P-51. They concluded
that it must have something to do with the
skill of the pilot.
‘The thing people just don’t understand
about this class of airplane [like theF-22] is what I call the ‘Farnborough
phenomenon’. We all go and watch these
airplanes put on spectacular demonstrations
right in front of our faces. I once had
someone in that situation say ‘what’s the
best airplane here Paul?’ I said: ‘none of them
— you’re looking at a circus act.’ The reason I
said that is that with stealthy airplanes they
kill by not being seen. They don’t engage
in dog ghts, in fact if you do engage in
a dog ght you’re making yourself very
vulnerable because anyone can jump on you
if you’re visual, and you can be shot down.
The power of a stealth airplane is to sneak
into the battlespace and not be seen, shoot
other airplanes and they don’t know where
the missiles are coming from.’GAME CHANGING TECHNOLOGY PAUL METZ
out. By USAF decree, no pilot ew the YF-
and the YF-23. The USAF was very keen to
avoid a situation whereby a pilot had own
both airplanes and was asked by a reporter
‘which is better’? Potentially causing the
company to lose the competition. So the
USAF was extremely strict but even-
handed in the programme.’
Re ecting on his time in development
of the YF-23, Metz says: ‘We startedwith simulations. Northrop had dome
simulators with full-up cockpits and
visual systems. We also had 12 Manned
Interactive Consoles [MIC] stations, which
back in 1986 were nothing more than a
TV screen and computer console, each
with a joystick and throttle. Each station
had a pilot and they ran mock dog ghts,
multiple iterations, looking at radar
detection ranges and how that a ected
Above: The two
YF-22 prototypes
were put through
their paces
under a rigorous
programme in
late 1990.
Below left to right:
A rare shot of
PAV-1 and PAV-
on the test ramp
at Edwards. USAF
The YF-23s were
also powered by
the competing
YF119 and YF
turbofans. USAF
The rst YF-22 in-
ight refuelling
took place on
October 26, 1990.(^12) RAPTOR
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