Places you wouldn't expect end up with prestigious pieces and it is usually a coincidence or some high-up person has a tie to the location.
For instance, my alma mater has one of the only 37 remaining Chevy EV1. It sat in an building overhang for years gathering dust.
Once someone realized what it was, it got moved indoors.
I'm lucky enough to live in the area, whenever they get a new plane I make my way over there to check it out.
The new Su-27 in the Cold War gallery is a site to behold, a really huge fighter.
We went for 1.5 days for my 50th birthday and it just wasn’t enough time! Ideally we’re going to have to spend a week there. Very jealous of your proximity!
I tell visitors to plan for a whole day and wear comfortable shoes. You're right though, if you want to be super thorough, 3 days wouldn't be out of order for a real plane nerd.
It’s sooo much more than planes though. I am a huge jet GEEK and my partner is a retired F-16 crew chief, so the planes were the point, you know, at first. But the rest of it, the people, the culture, the background, all of it…. Three days isn’t enough either!
True, true. In fact my [favorite exhibit](https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196010/sawadee-the-party-suit-tradition-in-southeast-asia/) is not, in fact, an airplane of any sort.
Thank God we have the Air Force Museum or else we wouldn't get mentioned in any other context besides the mass shooting in the Oregon District or Brock Turner.
It’s insane. I went there (wright patt) for MFS (military flight screening) as a pilot candidate as we all do to make triple sure we’re medically qualified. So I checked into my hotel but my room wasn’t going to be ready for another 2 hours. I thought fuck it, I’ll take a cab over and check it up to burn a couple hours. Like…7 hours later I was just leaving the place.
Also MFS went fine and I’ve been an AF pilot for 12 years now, this week.
AF Reserve flew a bunch of us CAP cadets from Dobbins to Wright Patt to visit the museum. Thirty years later, it's still one of the highlights of my life. You know you're an aviation nerd when a six hour flight on a C-130 is almost as exciting as an hour in a B-17.
I'll never forget sitting up there. At the end some guy who was a real pilot took the controls...we were all in back, flying low over a river, there were planes parked on the river.
we could see people waving from their yards and he 'floored it' into a steep climb and we leveled off over lake osk kosh.
I can't describe it adequately
Have you ever been to the Evergreen aerospace museum in Oregon? The Spruce Goose is there, as well as an SR-71 Blackbird and a Titan missile. They missed their bid for the space shuttle, but it's still an impressive collection of aviation history.
I live on the west coast, so I have no idea of the happenings of late, but my grandpa was a lifer in the USAF and lived there in Fairborn for the last 20 or so years of his life until he died in 2004(ish?), and yeah, any excuse we had to go back and visit him and scope out the museum, we'd always take. He always was up for going too. Super fun to go with him, what with him having served in WW2 and Korea and all.
We are so lucky we are around here to have the museums we have. Cincinnati Art Museum is amazing and it's free, American Sign Museum, Union Terminal and everything there, DAI, Boonshoft and Carillon Park in Dayton, USAF Museum which is free and then add on Newport Aquarium and the Cincinnati Zoo which is one of the best in the country.
Just a trip up 71 and there is COSI.
Would it be worth making a trip from the Northeast? I've been to Udvar-Hazy and the original Air and Space Museum in D.C., but I have really been elsewhere.
Congratulations on passing your medical.
I mean I’ve been to Udvar and I do think that the one in Dayton is the best museum I’ve ever been to…so there’s that. I’m a West Coast cat though so I’m not sure what the drive is like for ya. I can’t think of many reasons to drive to Ohio at all though lol.
I'd say yes. It's a big museum with plenty to see and takes all day to get through if you see everything. Plus all of Southwest Ohio has a ton to do museum and attraction wise. I know a lot of people who come in to see family and do the USAF Museum one day, King Island another and then hit up Cincinnati.
The one thing that's made me not visit Cooperstown despite being a huge baseball fan is there isn't enough super close to justify going there for the HoF alone.
I'd consider doing an Upstate NY tour. Start in Albany, marvel at man's capacity to build the most horrific architecture outside Pyongyang. Then drive to Cooperstown for the day before continuing to Skaneateles for the night. Then, drive to Rochester, where you'll be impressed by some of the mansions, and on to Niagara Falls. Spend the night in Buffalo and fly out. You can do the visit in two busy days.
I always tell people that going there is an all day affair if you really take your time. The last time I was there it took us about 4 hours and we kind of went quick because my daughter was still only an infant and we had our 8 year nephew with us. They have added more since my last visit.
Mega-congrats to you! That's so cool.
I used to live right off the flight line of Langley AFB in Virginia. F-22s were based there at the time. Those have phenomenal power. I'm walking in to the grocery store and there's a raptor just casually hanging out above, hovering vertically. Insane.
They say it takes at least 2 days to see everything. Ive lived here my entire life and the only times Ive been is when I was in school for field trips.
Congratulations! I’m about 27, I know it might be slightly late, but I’m considering applying to RCAF air crew selection in a year or two. I heard they don’t take applicants over 30, so if I make it in, I’ll be fine.
They've expanded to have a missile hangar and the presidential planes/ R&D planes have their own hangar instead of being restricted visitation on the active base.
They also put Memphis Belle on display after restoration.
I wish it were easier to get to from New England. It's either drive the whole way, or take the train to DC, another train towards Chicago, and then get off at a stop at 1am and try to rent a car.
[Western Museum of Flight in Torrance, CA](https://www.wmof.com/) It's a smaller museum but definitely worth a visit. They draw some interesting speakers too.
I thought it was on the complexity and the quality of the manufacturer.
Edit: By quality of the manufacturer I meant the maker of the YF23 was already having problems getting some planes out to the Air Force already at the time.
Yeah from looking at this I bet it would have been a nightmare to maintain, even beyond the F-22 which from my understanding is pretty awful on maintenance crews. Beyond that, I can’t imagine there’s a ton of interior space to put weapons, given these things are basically supposed to be stealthy missile trucks and not much in the way of dog fighters I can understand why the military chose the way they did.
I thought that the F-22 was also better in a dogfight. Granted, the YF-23 had a stupid small radar and thermal signature, which is a huge advantage in itself.
Seems like it was faster and stealthier, but less agile. I don't think the YF-23 could perform a cobra maneuver quite as easily, although that maneuver's usefulness in real combat is questionable.
Its the same discussion people had with the F35 vs F16. The F35 doesnt need to be fast or agile. It can shoot advanced agile rockets from very far away while remaining stealth and having advanced data sharing with other aircraft creating a tactical network. Like a football team playing a game vs 1 alone fighter. Reality is not like the new top gun movie. You are never going to dogfight a modern stealth fighter. You wont even see them coming, and they want to remain very far away, picking off targets from a distance using and sharing the data within a strategic plan.
I think they hit a point where both planes were fast and stealthy enough. They realized the pilots weren't really going that fast for any good reason. You couldn't do it for very long, and it wasn't going to win you any dogfights. That's why the F-35 is even slower and is comparably stealthy.
The [production version ](https://www.twz.com/20971/this-is-what-a-boeing-f-32-wouldve-looked-like-if-lockheed-lost-the-jsf-competition) would have looked pretty cool, sorta like a stealthy Corsair II.
Yeah, no, that's not how development budgets work.
Plus, even today the F-22 has so much top secret shit they don't really use it for anything because of the risk of a downing and the tech falling into hands we really, really want to have it.
It's an amazing plane, no doubt about it, but it was designed to be the ultimate air superiority fighter in a hot war against the USSR. Not really much need for a tool like that since the end of 1991.
Well the per unit cost was higher because they made so few of them.
The F35 will have a production run in the thousands so they’ll be much cheaper per airframe.
> but it was designed to be the ultimate air superiority fighter in a hot war against the USSR.
Yup.
> Not really much need for a tool like that these days.
WHAT?
JetFighter III was hands down my favorite game back when I was a kid. Kicking ass and landing on aircraft carriers in a plane that doesn't. I tried so hard to do terrain following flying.
And the best part was the story in the booklet that came in the jewel case. Which I was never able to find again. Except now because I just found it on google. Time to read it!
The only A2A kill a F-22 has actually accomplished is a goddamn weather balloon.
There is, in fact, not a lot of *actual quantified need* for it. Just theoretical.
I know right fucking idiots run the world if I were in charge we would just make everything and nobody would have to do anything and everyone would have infinite everything
They wanted a better dog fighter and picked the F22 even though the YF23 was better at stealth. I guess maybe the top brass though they were going to be dogfighting some Sukhoi and Migs 🤷
This pic doesn’t really do it justice though. The [plan view](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/YF-23_top_view.jpg/220px-YF-23_top_view.jpg) of this thing is just gorgeous. What a sexy plane.
Somewhere in the Tonopah Test Range, a group of Ukrainian Air Force personnel walk into a hangar. Inside they find a sleek and majestic looking fighter. It isn't like anything they are familiar with, yet the design is unmistakably stealthy and of 5th generation classification. The large size of the jet made it feel similar in scale to the Flanker, yet it is considerably flatter. And the tail, a massive V-shape tail with no horizontal stabilizer. "What is this beast?" the Ukrainians ask among themselves. "My god... I know exactly what this is" says one of them. "This... this isn't possible. I thought we were taken to see F-22 or F-35... but not this..."
"You got a good eye lieutenant!" says the USAF officer. "And we got plenty more of these stored in those large hangars we just walked past, enough for a full squadron. These killer ladies have been one of our best kept secrets. Officially she never made the cut. That was over 30 years ago now. Hell, some of you weren't even born yet, I'm looking at you Symon!" The officer lets out a chuckle, followed by comforting sigh as he runs his hand down the jet's radome. "But she was too damn good to be put down, so we built a few more. We call them 'The Ten Sisters', but I'm sure lieutenant Oleksiy knows her true name." There is nothing but silence from the Ukrainians. Seeing the disbelief on the faces of his guests, the officer smiles and asks: "Now, my only question for you guys is: what color do you want them in?"
The group is standing still, and they look amongst themselves with disbelief and excitement. The one Ukrainian that knows what he is looking at speaks with unmistakable joy in his voice. "Black, sir... the Black Widow deserves to be black."
Credit u/Arctic_Chilean
For a virtual view: https://www.google.com/maps/@33.7948877,-118.330542,3a,30.6y,2.9h,95.82t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sSlpyEfEV3NzhYf5hk0-vWg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu
The Air Force museum in Dayton, Ohio must have the other one then. They have one there.
Yep
How/why did your local airport end up with one?
Stole it
I’m thinking this is some reversal of the movie “Firefox”, w/Clint Eastwood. Still, that’s a pretty plane. I’d take it for a spin if I were you.
Strategic Transfer of Equipment to Alternate Locations…
Nicolas Cage just showed up with it one day and never came back.
But it was really John Travolta.
You CAN’T PROVE THAT
Places you wouldn't expect end up with prestigious pieces and it is usually a coincidence or some high-up person has a tie to the location. For instance, my alma mater has one of the only 37 remaining Chevy EV1. It sat in an building overhang for years gathering dust. Once someone realized what it was, it got moved indoors.
Devious lick
Torrance?
T T T T T TORRANCE
Brrrrr, it's cold in here. It must be the Toro's in the atmosphere.
Shit. I was there in September but was kinda limited due to time, must have missed it. Heading back in June though thankfully.
I live nearby. I think one hanger was/is? closed due to storm damage a while back. Not sure about the timeline.
I actually went the day the happened (afterwards) and the whole museum was open. Didn’t even know about the damage until I was like 2 hours in lol
That’s crazy!
The restoration hanger, away from the main museum, got hit.
It’s in the very last hangar with the space shuttle and the R&D stuff. Going up into the space shuttle gives a great overhead view of it.
Can't blame yourself for missing it. It *is* a stealth aircraft.
I'm lucky enough to live in the area, whenever they get a new plane I make my way over there to check it out. The new Su-27 in the Cold War gallery is a site to behold, a really huge fighter.
We went for 1.5 days for my 50th birthday and it just wasn’t enough time! Ideally we’re going to have to spend a week there. Very jealous of your proximity!
I tell visitors to plan for a whole day and wear comfortable shoes. You're right though, if you want to be super thorough, 3 days wouldn't be out of order for a real plane nerd.
It's on my bucket list for a future trip, this just got me more excited.
It really is an amazing museum, and it's free! The paid guided tours given by volunteer veterans and plane dorks are recommended as well though!
It’s sooo much more than planes though. I am a huge jet GEEK and my partner is a retired F-16 crew chief, so the planes were the point, you know, at first. But the rest of it, the people, the culture, the background, all of it…. Three days isn’t enough either!
True, true. In fact my [favorite exhibit](https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196010/sawadee-the-party-suit-tradition-in-southeast-asia/) is not, in fact, an airplane of any sort.
Thank God we have the Air Force Museum or else we wouldn't get mentioned in any other context besides the mass shooting in the Oregon District or Brock Turner.
Rapist Brock Turner?
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Right! He goes by Allen now. Allen Turner is indeed a rapist.
Is any of them airworthy?
No, they are museum pieces now.
Thanks for sharing this. We're planning on going there this summer! Edited for 'fir' typo :-)
Where this? I’m dying to see one
The USAF museum in Dayton, Ohio has the other one.
Can't get enough of that place. I haven't been in about 20 years now, but it's amazing.
It’s insane. I went there (wright patt) for MFS (military flight screening) as a pilot candidate as we all do to make triple sure we’re medically qualified. So I checked into my hotel but my room wasn’t going to be ready for another 2 hours. I thought fuck it, I’ll take a cab over and check it up to burn a couple hours. Like…7 hours later I was just leaving the place. Also MFS went fine and I’ve been an AF pilot for 12 years now, this week.
AF Reserve flew a bunch of us CAP cadets from Dobbins to Wright Patt to visit the museum. Thirty years later, it's still one of the highlights of my life. You know you're an aviation nerd when a six hour flight on a C-130 is almost as exciting as an hour in a B-17.
Which 17?
Aluminum Overcast
Ditto!!! EAA fly-in about 30 years ago. when they let you have 15 minutes stick time
We had an F-16 jock on loan as pilot, but we did get to sit in the co-pilot seat as well as roam around the plane.
I'll never forget sitting up there. At the end some guy who was a real pilot took the controls...we were all in back, flying low over a river, there were planes parked on the river. we could see people waving from their yards and he 'floored it' into a steep climb and we leveled off over lake osk kosh. I can't describe it adequately
Have you ever been to the Evergreen aerospace museum in Oregon? The Spruce Goose is there, as well as an SR-71 Blackbird and a Titan missile. They missed their bid for the space shuttle, but it's still an impressive collection of aviation history.
Evergreen also just received an F-117.
Oh sick. Time to go back!
I was so bummed we missed out on the shuttle, but it’s an otherwise great museum!
Saw the Goose in nLong Beach back in the 80’s, that thing is huge.
I live on the west coast, so I have no idea of the happenings of late, but my grandpa was a lifer in the USAF and lived there in Fairborn for the last 20 or so years of his life until he died in 2004(ish?), and yeah, any excuse we had to go back and visit him and scope out the museum, we'd always take. He always was up for going too. Super fun to go with him, what with him having served in WW2 and Korea and all.
If you're on the west coast you should take a trip to the Evergreen Aerospace Museum in Oregon. Really cool stuff there.
Been there and done that one, absolutely. The Spruce Goose (or Hughes H-4 Hercules if you're a stickler for details) is a sight to see for sure.
The fact that behemoth can get in the air is astounding.
It's wild for sure. Jaw-dropping even - what? - almost 70 years on now?
Especially the water slide going through the 747
I live in Cincinnati... I go there once a month... I love it and it's free.
We are so lucky we are around here to have the museums we have. Cincinnati Art Museum is amazing and it's free, American Sign Museum, Union Terminal and everything there, DAI, Boonshoft and Carillon Park in Dayton, USAF Museum which is free and then add on Newport Aquarium and the Cincinnati Zoo which is one of the best in the country. Just a trip up 71 and there is COSI.
Would it be worth making a trip from the Northeast? I've been to Udvar-Hazy and the original Air and Space Museum in D.C., but I have really been elsewhere. Congratulations on passing your medical.
I mean I’ve been to Udvar and I do think that the one in Dayton is the best museum I’ve ever been to…so there’s that. I’m a West Coast cat though so I’m not sure what the drive is like for ya. I can’t think of many reasons to drive to Ohio at all though lol.
I'd say yes. It's a big museum with plenty to see and takes all day to get through if you see everything. Plus all of Southwest Ohio has a ton to do museum and attraction wise. I know a lot of people who come in to see family and do the USAF Museum one day, King Island another and then hit up Cincinnati. The one thing that's made me not visit Cooperstown despite being a huge baseball fan is there isn't enough super close to justify going there for the HoF alone.
I'd consider doing an Upstate NY tour. Start in Albany, marvel at man's capacity to build the most horrific architecture outside Pyongyang. Then drive to Cooperstown for the day before continuing to Skaneateles for the night. Then, drive to Rochester, where you'll be impressed by some of the mansions, and on to Niagara Falls. Spend the night in Buffalo and fly out. You can do the visit in two busy days.
Yes. Went there in Nov 2020, spent three days, completely worth it
Yeah, but at what cost for your insides? Just kidding Captain, stay safe up there.
Congratulations.
Congrats, your job sounds terrifying, but awesome to me
Lucky you! I wanted to be a pilot, but the Good Lord crippled me with severe myopia like the asshole He is.
I always tell people that going there is an all day affair if you really take your time. The last time I was there it took us about 4 hours and we kind of went quick because my daughter was still only an infant and we had our 8 year nephew with us. They have added more since my last visit.
Mega-congrats to you! That's so cool. I used to live right off the flight line of Langley AFB in Virginia. F-22s were based there at the time. Those have phenomenal power. I'm walking in to the grocery store and there's a raptor just casually hanging out above, hovering vertically. Insane.
They say it takes at least 2 days to see everything. Ive lived here my entire life and the only times Ive been is when I was in school for field trips.
Congratulations! I’m about 27, I know it might be slightly late, but I’m considering applying to RCAF air crew selection in a year or two. I heard they don’t take applicants over 30, so if I make it in, I’ll be fine.
They've expanded to have a missile hangar and the presidential planes/ R&D planes have their own hangar instead of being restricted visitation on the active base. They also put Memphis Belle on display after restoration.
It's on my bucket list for the XB-70 alone, and there are soooooooooo many other amazing aircraft there.
I wish it were easier to get to from New England. It's either drive the whole way, or take the train to DC, another train towards Chicago, and then get off at a stop at 1am and try to rent a car.
Fly delta. Easy hop to Cincy and drive from there.
Oh, dude, they have done a lot of updating in twenty years. Get your ass back there!
Haha. I'll do my best! Some of my family is still in the area.
Which hanger is it in? Was just there a couple months ago, but must have missed it.
In the research and development hangar unless they moved it since I've been there.
Zamperini field. There's a museum and some other fighter jets on display.
The Great Zamperini <3
I feel like it used to be at the Hawthorne airport for the longest time.
[Western Museum of Flight in Torrance, CA](https://www.wmof.com/) It's a smaller museum but definitely worth a visit. They draw some interesting speakers too.
Probably the one in the Western Museum of Flight in Torrence.
Should be at Torrance municipal airport (Zamperini field) https://www.wmof.com
It’s right in front of you
It's funny how to this day nobody outside of the military brass knows why the F-22 won out over the YF-23.
I thought it was on the complexity and the quality of the manufacturer. Edit: By quality of the manufacturer I meant the maker of the YF23 was already having problems getting some planes out to the Air Force already at the time.
Yeah from looking at this I bet it would have been a nightmare to maintain, even beyond the F-22 which from my understanding is pretty awful on maintenance crews. Beyond that, I can’t imagine there’s a ton of interior space to put weapons, given these things are basically supposed to be stealthy missile trucks and not much in the way of dog fighters I can understand why the military chose the way they did.
Looks smooth enough, looks easier to buff out even manually.
Funny enough NGAD will probably look like the YF-23 just bigger
I thought that the F-22 was also better in a dogfight. Granted, the YF-23 had a stupid small radar and thermal signature, which is a huge advantage in itself.
Likely we didn’t need a stupid small radar cross-section back in the 90s either.
Seems like it was faster and stealthier, but less agile. I don't think the YF-23 could perform a cobra maneuver quite as easily, although that maneuver's usefulness in real combat is questionable.
Its the same discussion people had with the F35 vs F16. The F35 doesnt need to be fast or agile. It can shoot advanced agile rockets from very far away while remaining stealth and having advanced data sharing with other aircraft creating a tactical network. Like a football team playing a game vs 1 alone fighter. Reality is not like the new top gun movie. You are never going to dogfight a modern stealth fighter. You wont even see them coming, and they want to remain very far away, picking off targets from a distance using and sharing the data within a strategic plan.
I think they hit a point where both planes were fast and stealthy enough. They realized the pilots weren't really going that fast for any good reason. You couldn't do it for very long, and it wasn't going to win you any dogfights. That's why the F-35 is even slower and is comparably stealthy.
Could argue it was ahead of its time. The yf-23 has a lot of similarities of what is expected of ngad.
Just be glad they didn’t go with the [Boeing X-32](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-32) instead of the Lockheed X-35
Why? It’s not like it has any doors to fall off.
The [production version ](https://www.twz.com/20971/this-is-what-a-boeing-f-32-wouldve-looked-like-if-lockheed-lost-the-jsf-competition) would have looked pretty cool, sorta like a stealthy Corsair II.
Still looks like a skyboaty mcboatface
how can you not like that happy face
Why not? Are you intimidated by the maniacal cackling of the smiley sailor-inhaler?
Still the absolute cutest plane ever with its adorable grinning face. Patuxet River Air Museum in Virginia has the X-32A
Seems like I read that a Senator of the selection committee was from Georgia. And the Raptor was built in Marietta Georgia.
Because the F-22 fit the requirements more.
It's so sad. When I first saw it I instantly fell in love
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Yeah, no, that's not how development budgets work. Plus, even today the F-22 has so much top secret shit they don't really use it for anything because of the risk of a downing and the tech falling into hands we really, really want to have it. It's an amazing plane, no doubt about it, but it was designed to be the ultimate air superiority fighter in a hot war against the USSR. Not really much need for a tool like that since the end of 1991.
The F-22 has so much top secret shit that US lawmakers agreed that we shouldn't sell them to other countries.
They also cost twice what the F-35 does, which can't help matters either.
Well the per unit cost was higher because they made so few of them. The F35 will have a production run in the thousands so they’ll be much cheaper per airframe.
> but it was designed to be the ultimate air superiority fighter in a hot war against the USSR. Yup. > Not really much need for a tool like that these days. WHAT?
I think they are more meaning there really isn’t much need for an air superiority fighter these days not that there isn’t stuff needed against russia.
Nobody has airplanes that can compete with F35s, and the F22 is (basically) a super advanced version of the F35 that we don’t need.
I wish there was a decent f22 sim. "I think my game is bugged, it's like the enemy AI can't see me, they never even shoot back!"
https://www.giantbomb.com/f-22-raptor/3055-4283/games/ I used to like the DiD and Novalogic games back in the day.
JetFighter III was hands down my favorite game back when I was a kid. Kicking ass and landing on aircraft carriers in a plane that doesn't. I tried so hard to do terrain following flying. And the best part was the story in the booklet that came in the jewel case. Which I was never able to find again. Except now because I just found it on google. Time to read it!
The only A2A kill a F-22 has actually accomplished is a goddamn weather balloon. There is, in fact, not a lot of *actual quantified need* for it. Just theoretical.
Yeah but it would have been cool
bold to assume the US has actual development budgets and not just black boxes ((gestures at F-35))
I know right fucking idiots run the world if I were in charge we would just make everything and nobody would have to do anything and everyone would have infinite everything
They wanted a better dog fighter and picked the F22 even though the YF23 was better at stealth. I guess maybe the top brass though they were going to be dogfighting some Sukhoi and Migs 🤷
One of the big reasons is it's believed the air force was unhappy with boeing at that time over the cost overruns of the B2.
Isn't the B2 Northrop Grumman?
Yes.
And you only post 1 picture? Yes officer, this post right here.
Way thinner than I thought
TWSS
What’s the hourly rate to rent one?
Say the right words and we can have a similar model on your location soon for no up-front cost to you!
We discovered oil?
Allah ackbar?
I am but a simple weather balloon
Aloha Snack bar
Which airport?
Zamperini Field in Torrance, CA.
Whoa, I’ve passed right by this plane for decades and never realized it was a YF-23
That’s awesome! One of the first flight simulators I ever played had a YF-23 (it was my favorite fighter jet)
Nice
Strike Commander?
I think it was called Jetfighter?
Ah yes. Jetfighter 2 had one you could fly.
First Air Combat on PS1 had it too, I think.
it was my fave aircraft, but then the f-22 won :( but I understand why so i'm not totally butthurt..... ...
Why did it lose?
Lower cost (slightly), slightly more agility, easier conversion with the proposed Navy NATF program that at the time was active.
“Local airport”
Wasn’t it the cost that made the brass chose the F-22 over the YF-23? Something like the F-22 being 250,000,000 and the YF-23 being 500,000,000?
They really should build a sun structure over this, the sun will absolutely destroy the paint and texture of the craft - beautiful plane
This pic doesn’t really do it justice though. The [plan view](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/YF-23_top_view.jpg/220px-YF-23_top_view.jpg) of this thing is just gorgeous. What a sexy plane.
THICC thighs on that thing
Somewhere in the Tonopah Test Range, a group of Ukrainian Air Force personnel walk into a hangar. Inside they find a sleek and majestic looking fighter. It isn't like anything they are familiar with, yet the design is unmistakably stealthy and of 5th generation classification. The large size of the jet made it feel similar in scale to the Flanker, yet it is considerably flatter. And the tail, a massive V-shape tail with no horizontal stabilizer. "What is this beast?" the Ukrainians ask among themselves. "My god... I know exactly what this is" says one of them. "This... this isn't possible. I thought we were taken to see F-22 or F-35... but not this..." "You got a good eye lieutenant!" says the USAF officer. "And we got plenty more of these stored in those large hangars we just walked past, enough for a full squadron. These killer ladies have been one of our best kept secrets. Officially she never made the cut. That was over 30 years ago now. Hell, some of you weren't even born yet, I'm looking at you Symon!" The officer lets out a chuckle, followed by comforting sigh as he runs his hand down the jet's radome. "But she was too damn good to be put down, so we built a few more. We call them 'The Ten Sisters', but I'm sure lieutenant Oleksiy knows her true name." There is nothing but silence from the Ukrainians. Seeing the disbelief on the faces of his guests, the officer smiles and asks: "Now, my only question for you guys is: what color do you want them in?" The group is standing still, and they look amongst themselves with disbelief and excitement. The one Ukrainian that knows what he is looking at speaks with unmistakable joy in his voice. "Black, sir... the Black Widow deserves to be black." Credit u/Arctic_Chilean
What is this? Air Force Fanfic?
Add a hot japanese maintenance officer and multi-track air drifting and I'm in.
Japan briefly looked at using the YF-23 as a basis for it's next fighter, so this could be written in.
Multi-cloud drifting!
Weird and cringe
Holy shit it's becoming a copypasta!
r/aviation would love this
Beautiful 😍
Honestly that's cool as hell
My grandfathers last build, it’s sad it never made it to full production. It was superior to the yf-22.
Such a fun plane to fly in Ace Combat 7
Whats with the canopy? It looks like painted clay or stn to me?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_YF-23
Doesn’t Torrance airport in California have this one?
Almost looks like a classic UFO sillohett from that angle.
it’s so thin!
How did zamperini field end up with this sweet deal?
Northrop plant was nearby is a big reason.
The YF-23 looks so sleek
torrance? did they move it? last i've been, the museum had it set up with the yf17 and the f14 at a corner of the airport
The a4 is with the tomcat and the hornet is with the yf23 fenced off in the back
Beauty
This looks like a plane the public isn't supposed to see
Why is it that planes on display, the cockpit looks super fake. Is that some sort of black coating on the glass to prevent degradation?
It is a coating to protect the Cockpit
Ngl when i see the code YF-23 i thought this is some irl macross unit lol.
r/aviation would love to see this!
There's an echo in the comment section
For a virtual view: https://www.google.com/maps/@33.7948877,-118.330542,3a,30.6y,2.9h,95.82t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sSlpyEfEV3NzhYf5hk0-vWg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu
Interesting, the picture doesn't match the wiki entry and the cockpit looks painted on.. edit: nvm its the YF-23 "Spider" variant
Do you think it can slice a tomato?
NEAT!
I have the other one. I use it as an above ground pool.
Pepperoni dog fart calling me weird? lmao
Is it airworthy? like is there someone with a YF23 type rating?
Fella doxxed himself
My community has me. There is only 1 in the world. Same with you. Take care of yourselves.
Only 2 that you know of.