Author Topic: Northrop YF-23 Black Widow II  (Read 19911 times)

Offline elmayerle

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Re: Northrop YF-23 Black Widow II
« Reply #25 on: September 11, 2014, 06:04:14 AM »
1) Consider a stored boarding ladder like the F-35's.

2) IF you go with a built-in boarding ladder, put the gun on the other side (yeah, I know the F-35A doesn't, but the gun's far enough outboard that it shouldn't matter on that one).

3) YF-23 had a single weapons bay, F-23 proposal had tandem weapons bays with a moveable bulkhead between them (see similar installation on the B-1B); I'd probably go with the lengthened fuselage, myself.

4) Upgrade to two F135 or F136 engines for the FB-23 and stay with two engines.  Carefully blended so as to preserve the low RCS, I could see filling in those areas; I'd probably build them up with sheet styrene or cut sprue and only apply putty for the outer surfasces.

5) Using the F-35's EOTS shape would likely get you close enough and, I agree, it would make for more interesting lines.  To make it more interesting, something similar in front of the cockpit canopy as a lidar unit?

Further Note: The shorter F-16 pylons would work here as the F-23 wing clearly doesn't have the ground clearance of the F-15 while being a lot closer to that of the F-16. 

I've also looked at combining two YF-23 fuselages in 1/72 with the cockpit and nose of a Su-34 for a FB-23 and it looks feasible.
« Last Edit: September 11, 2014, 09:41:41 AM by elmayerle »

Offline Jeffry Fontaine

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Re: Northrop YF-23 Black Widow II
« Reply #26 on: September 12, 2014, 04:22:15 AM »
Finally found an image (drawing) of the YF-23 showing the gun mounted on the right side of the fuselage courtesy of F-16.net.  Discussion and image can be found at this link: Movie on F-22 vs F-23.  Scroll down to find the image or click here.  Image source for crediting purposes is unknown so I am not hot-linking it. 

Another question concerning the in-flight refueling receptacle.  Where was it to be located?  One of the drawings shows this equipment mounted just forward of left engine hump and the HobbyBoss kit sort of ignores this feature all together.  There is some engraving on the fuselage behind the cockpit but nothing that remotely resembled the IFR doors. 
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Offline elmayerle

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Re: Northrop YF-23 Black Widow II
« Reply #27 on: September 12, 2014, 09:36:27 AM »
The B-2's refueling receptacle is on a rotating door to minimize the RCS effects, I could see them doing the same thing on the F-23 and if the engraving just behind the cockpit is elongated fore and aft, that might well be a representation of this.

Actually, this shows where it was on the YF-23:

Offline The Big Gimper

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Re: Northrop YF-23 Black Widow II
« Reply #28 on: September 07, 2015, 11:29:51 PM »
I was going through my collection of books, magazines and other aviation knick knacks I have acquired over the decades.

Looky what I found:



I do not know recall how I got the SNORT decals but the YF-23 decal I believe came from the St. Louis McDonnell Douglas plant which my friend and I visited when we drive drove to Omaha in July 1982.
« Last Edit: September 07, 2015, 11:52:10 PM by The Big Gimper »
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Offline Jeffry Fontaine

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Re: Northrop YF-23 Black Widow II
« Reply #29 on: August 11, 2016, 09:04:41 AM »
Revisiting this topic to look at all of the comments.  Just posted a question about boarding ladders for the F-23 in a long dead and buried topic on the HobbyBoss YF-23 at ARC forums.  Will be interesting to see what gets churned up this time around. 

I am still planning on incorporating wing pylons with at least one of my YF-23 kits and I am leaning towards using F-15 and F-18 pylons since Northrop and MDD were teamed up on the original program to produce the F-23. 

The fairing under the nose is a must have and I do like the idea of another small sensor ahead of the windscreen for another IRST or LIDAR sensor. 

The more I look at the squared off wing tips the more I like the idea of a wing tip mounted launcher for Sidewinder or AMRAAM.  While it might not be practical in real life, the what-if universe has a different set of rules. 
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Offline Daryl J.

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Re: Northrop YF-23 Black Widow II
« Reply #30 on: August 11, 2016, 01:08:13 PM »
I'd love to put a larger main wing on it.
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Offline The Big Gimper

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Re: Northrop YF-23 Black Widow II
« Reply #31 on: November 15, 2018, 10:32:01 AM »
These and many more F-23 BW II images can be found here: This Is What A Northrop F-23A Would've Looked Like If It Had Beaten Lockheed's F-22







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Re: Northrop YF-23 Black Widow II
« Reply #32 on: November 16, 2018, 03:44:08 AM »
 :smiley:
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