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While Paul Metz joined the F-22 program immediately after the YF-23 lost the ATF competition, have there been any other pilots from the YF-23 program join Lockeed of some portion of the USAF's testing program of the F-22?
Adrian
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Posted: Jul 24, 2008 - 7:53 AM
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asiatrails
Posted: Mar 07, 2007 - 02:38 AM
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EBJet wrote:
Beasley did not fly the YF-23..The 3 contractor pilots were Paul Metz and Jim Sandberg from Northrop,and Bill Lowe from McDonnell Douglas.
There were several USAF pilots as well,with the majority of those flights made by (then) Maj. Con Thueson.
Bill Lowe, that's a name from the past. Worked with him on the AV8B flight test program at Pax. River
EBJet
Posted: Mar 08, 2007 - 02:12 AM
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Bill Lowe was actually the first pilot to Supercruise the YF-23,although Metz had gone supersonic in an AB acceleration run prior to that.Lowe went through Mach 1 with no AB.
Heckuva nice guy too.
asiatrails
Posted: Mar 08, 2007 - 03:28 AM
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EBJet wrote:
Bill Lowe was actually the first pilot to Supercruise the YF-23,although Metz had gone supersonic in an AB acceleration run prior to that.Lowe went through Mach 1 with no AB.
Heckuva nice guy too.
Well said, Bill's a classy guy.
ATFS_Crash
Posted: Mar 12, 2007 - 09:22 AM
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Holy cow! How the hell did you find it? Did you scour the boneyard for it???
Those are F-4s to the right, correct? And I think that's a lone A-7 below and to the left of the Phantoms.
What a waste of the greatest fighter ever not to have been built...
EBJet
Posted: Mar 12, 2007 - 07:52 PM
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Looks like the full scale RCS pole model..
idesof
Posted: Mar 12, 2007 - 07:59 PM
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EBJet wrote:
Looks like the full scale RCS pole model..
Not questioning you in any aggressive or otherwise snide manner but, how can you tell?
Also, as per the god-awfull "F-22 Raptor" book authored by Jay Miller (truly one of the very worst books on aviation I have ever read), he claims that at least one YF-23 was supposed to return to flying status for research or some such thing. Anyone know anything about that? Or are both prototypes now gateguards somewhere, or roasting at AMARC, as per the satellite image?
TC
Posted: Mar 12, 2007 - 08:42 PM
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Last I heard, one YF-23 was in a museum in Hawthorne, California, and the other was at Wright Pat.
Regarding the YF-23 being restored to flying status, NG wanted to enter a design based off of the YF-23 for the proposed Strike Eagle replacement. A modified Raptor, designated FB-22 was also being considered. I've heard the program was cancelled, or is being modified.
EBJet
Posted: Mar 12, 2007 - 08:54 PM
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TC is correct..PAV-2 is at Hawthorne,after a nice "refurbishment" and PAV-1 is at WP allegedly awaiting a refurbishment of its own..2 prototypes,and both accounted for.
Since there weren't 3 YF-23's,and given the location of that map,I'm betting it's the full scale RCS bird,which also was/is a light gray such as you see in the photo.
Hope that helps...And idesof,I didn't take your comment as being snide at all..
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