Aviation Specials — F-22 Raptor (2017)

your lethality. It was this data that decided

what warranted us putting money into.

Our ATF simulator runs each lasted  ve

or six minutes and we would  y against a

simulated Red Air aggressor. The guys on

the Red Air side had a tough time against

our  ight test engineers. They were killed

out time and time again and they had no

clue how. It proved the power of stealth

and it really changed the way air warfare

was conducted.’

THE FINAL VERDICT

With Northrop’s partner McDonnell

Douglas embroiled in the collapse of the

ill-fated Navy A-12 Avenger programme,

con dence in the ability to deliver on the

ATF project wasn’t in the YF-23 team’s

favour. Compounding this was the F-117’s

stellar reputation as the hero of Operation

‘Desert Storm’ in early 1991. It actually

served to build huge con dence in

Lockheed’s pedigree and ability to deliver

the new stealthy  ghter.

Air Force Secretary Dr Donald Rice

announced the day before the big decision

that the number of ATFs to be procured

would be reduced from 750 to 648 aircraft

as a result of declining defence budgets.

At this time the 648 aircraft were to be

procured at an estimated total programme

cost of $99.1 billion — making it the most

expensive weapons system at that time.

The F-22 and Pratt & Whitney F

combination were declared the winners on

April 23, 1991. Dr Donald Rice announced

Right: On

October

25, 1990,

Maj Mark

Shackelford

became the

 rst USAF

pilot to  y

the YF-

prototype.

Lockheed

Martin/Denny

Lombard

Below: PAV-

touches down

on the runway

at Edwards

AFB.

RAPTOR^13

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