8 YOU MOST WISH WENT INTO PRODUCTION / ENTERED SERVICE?https://strawpoll.com/Q0Zp7NqLJgM
The SAAB nuke bomber.
>>64436802Northrop’s ATA proposal would’ve been much more capable than the A-12. McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics had no idea how to do stealth at that time, plus the Navy wanted a low level penetrator since they didn’t get how stealth worked either. Northrop, Grumman, and LTV pitched a mini B-2 that would operate at mid-high altitude, but told the Navy their price point was impossible and they’d never accept a fixed price $5 billion contract when the program would cost much more. As such the contract went to McDD/GD, who not understanding stealth but assuming they would be handed over all of Lockheed and Northrop’s research and manufacturing techniques thought they could do it at that price point. They were not and the project was later cancelled when it became clear there would be massive cost overruns. Had the Navy just accepted it would cost a few billion more they’d have had a stealthy strike aircraft with self escort capability and a much higher payload than an F-35 and range similar to an A-6 enter the fleet probably somewhere in the late 90s or early 2000s. Instead they didn’t get any stealth capabilities until roughly the 2020s
The YF-23 would have been far better than the F-22 and would have remained relevant longer. All of its advantages are things that are even more relevant nowdays (better stealth, longer range, higher speed, larger weapons bay), while a lot of the F-22's advantages are rapidly becoming obsolete. It also looks way more awesomer. The YF-22 getting chosen was where the timeline officially diverged into the gay clown world timeline that we're in now instead of the awesome world that we could've had. If you ask me, the second the YF-23 got rejected was the point at which every person in the world should have committed suicide all at once to purge the world of the sin of our continued existence.
Why God . . . Why . . . ?
>>64436843>you're now aware the only reason the 22 won is because it did a flip and a barrel roll while firing a missile too woo and wow the Nam dogfight boomers
>>64436843The YF-23 was beating the YF-22 in all metrics till all of a sudden it wasn't after Lockheeb arrange for a few briefcases to be "accidentally" left on a few desks.
Jap F-22Engine, thrust vectoring system, main weapon bay and radar were ready...
The speed advantage was slight, Mach 1.72 supercruise and Mach 2.3 max versus Mach 1.58 supercruise and Mach 2.2 max for the raptor. The real advantage as I see it is in the range, better stealth, and larger weapons bay. It had almost a third longer range, 2,800 miles to the Raptor's 2,000 miles. This would make it vastly more relevant to the pacific theater. It was moderately more stealthy in RCS and much more stealthy in IR, both incredibly important today. The weapons bay would have allowed it to carry 2000lb JDAMs and Harpoon antiship missiles internally, and two more AMRAAMs in an air defense loadout. The only major thing the F-22 can do that the YF-23 couldn't was supramaneuverability from thrust vectoring, a meme ability that essentially amounts to a party trick in a century where almost every air engagement is BVR.We were robbed. The YF-23 was better in almost every conceivable way that matters. It could go farther behind the lines, get closer without being detected, be harder to hit, deliver vastly more punishment to air, land, and sea targets, and do it quicker. If you did large-scale combat simulations between F-22 and (hypothetical) F-23 squadrons I would bet on the Raptors getting mogged every single time.
>>64437142Forgot pic
>>64437142I so want the reveal of the F/A-XX to be Northrop Grumman having a photo of pic related at the unveiling ceremony, saying "Behold the navy's new strike fighter!" when removing the black sheet and you end up just seeing a YF-23 with the YF-23 part on the tail crossed out in chalk.
>>64436802>p1154 that low
>>64436814Looks like my latest ksp creation
>>64436802I did my part. I chose RF-4X, Yak 141 and the Crusader III
>>64436802The mirage 4000 is so close the the rafale conceptually, it kinda went into production in my heart. So I'll say SU 47 just for the pure sex look, the YF is a close second
>>64436814Saabs planes are so fucking ugly I don't get why people like this style
YF-12 is so awesome.
>>64436802I voted f16xl + yf23I like the f20 but it is understandable that it did not enter production
I didn't vote for the F-16XL. My boss who flew vipers in the chair force said that the large wing killed the performance and maneuverability to get more range and bomb load. Strike Eagle need no real changes to the air frame. A-12 Avenger would go a long way to helping US naval aviation today. Should have had the Tomcat 21 in the roster.
>>64437671Bump
>>64437247Because it isn't far from that. Saab A36 nuclear bomber wouldn't have looked like that at all. That thing doesn't even resemble any of actually studied aircraft configurations.>>644373411. its retarded fan fiction2. you have just as bad taste as retard who made that picture.>>64437463It is awesome until you realize how expensive it was and even more so when operating costs kick in. Projected cost of serial production aircraft would have been around 18 million in mid 60's, adjusted for inflation its about ten times as much today. For comparison, F-4 Phantom II at the time cost 2.4 million. Then we can get to operational costs, as it is pretty much same plane as SR-71 there we have actual numbers, from the time SR-71's were mothballed first time. Cost per flight hour in late 80's for SR-71 was 85k, that would be 230k per flight hour today. In addition to that annual sustainment costs for dozen active Blackbirds, 10 recon planes and two trainers, were in ballpark of 300 million per year, that would be over 800 million today.It may have been worth it as weapons test bed for what would eventually evolve into AIM-54 Phoenix, general purpose high speed test vehicle for USAF and NASA and as coverup for A-12 and SR-71 programs.
>>64439944All sab planes are ugly as fuck not just that one
>>64436814The compression on this picture is so shit that I always have the kneejerk impulse to say its AI. Not to mention it looks stupid. This is how it really looked at by the cancellation of the project, much better than the abortion you posted. It carried a single nuclear bomb or equivalent (e.g. AShM or ALCM) size weapon.
>>64440121You have shit taste btw. If you dont like shit like this, you are a casual. You cant even spell Saab right you homo.I dare you to post your own (personal) favorite prototype. At least back up your opinion with your own idea of beauty.
>>64437245>BAC TSR-2>14Why? It was kino, it was perfectly suited for obliterating soviet forces and surveying the results afterwards. Makes me want to cry a little.
>>64440520shut the fuck up, liking goblin themed planes doesn't make you cool it just shows that you are a dirty greasy dnd player that never touched a woman. If I wanted to win an internet contest about sexy concept planes with a greasy incel I'd choose the 100P, it's pure french class, learn from it faggot
This is a sexy plane.
>on the chart the Fat-22 bomber followed by the Fat-16>off the chart or on the chartXB-70
>>64443378I don't get the cult of the XB-70. It was built around a shitty mission profile and would've ended up like the Hustler had it actually gone into service>muh f104If all it takes is 1 accident to shitcan a project, it wasn't a very good project and they were just looking for a convenient excuse>muh high speed Para drop podsRetarded concept>muh reconU2 and SR-71 already did it fineFrankly we should've pursued the armed blackbird project if you want a way to quickly deliver nukes. Oh wait no, still a dumb idea because we have ICBMs and SLBMs
>no ACH-47Retarded poll
>>64443575NTA but it's visually distinct and people just find high performance shit cool, even if it's conceptually useless. Also, to be fair to the program, the plane that was lost was the better of the two. If it was the first or neither that were destroyed, it would have persisted a longer in experimental use.
>>64443623Also want to add that it's associated with Pye Wacket, my favorite missile concept, which aside from being a point defense weapon would also have had fairly decent performance for AAMs the period.
>>64440639>liking goblin themed planes doesn't make you cool it just shows that you are a dirty greasy dnd player that never touched a womanKek, the 100P is a nice aircraft, I personally prefer its same-face german recon equivalent, the He 119.
>>64443602This is a SFW board that's why!
The YF-23 will return.
>>64437142>>64437148based knower
>no lockheed CL-1201 option:(
>>64444394Fair enough
