![]() Along with the new airframe designs, each aircraft was to also trial a pair of new powerplants in each afforded prototype bringing both General Electric and Pratt & Whitney into the fold. The Lockheed submission was to be designated as the "YF-22" whilst the Northrop submission became the "YF-23". ![]() ![]() The storied aviation firms of Lockheed and Northrop went head-to-head in the ensuing ATF competition. In July of 1986, the Demonstration and Validation Phase began and ultimately led to a formal "request for proposal" being sent out with Lockheed and Northrop headlining the response. The new fighter platform would also have to exhibit unparalleled performance (in excess of Mach 1.5) for the air-to-air role through superior use of burgeoning technologies that included vectoring thrust and stealth, the latter through various materials and skilful use of design to make for a relatively invisible enemy. The USAF required a new-generation aircraft capable of exceeding the speed of sound without the need for thirsty afterburning technology while also featuring an operational range of approximately 800 miles. Several developmental platforms serving throughout the latter part of the 1970s and into the 1980s would go on to deliver the valuable data that would influence the future of American flight.īy June of 1981, formal specifications had been ironed out for the successor to the F-15. The ATF program began in 1981 and the USAF ultimately envisioned some 750 ATF aircraft to fill its next-generation stable. However, technological progression the world over would eventually catch up to the fabled F-15 lineage and its large interceptor concept so, thusly, a new thoroughbred was on order. By the time of the ATF program, the F-15 was really only just beginning to gain a foothold in the USAF inventory. The airframe was eventually adapted into a dual-role air-superiority / ground strike version in the F-15E "Strike Eagle" offering and was even more recently converted to a "semi-stealth" end-product through the proposed F-15SE "Silent Eagle" initiative. She was as a large fighter platform meant for true air superiority over Soviet-sponsored fighters of the time, offering a potent payload along with excellent top-flight speed and proved an outright success within time - one of the classic American fighters of all time. The F-15 Eagle itself was born in the thick of the Cold War years and was accepted into service in 1976. Origins of the F-22 lay in the Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) initiative put forth by the USAF in an effort to shore up an aging frontline of Cold War-era fighter platforms - particularly the venerable F-15 Eagle series. Both Russia and China are currently development 5th Generation Fighters all their own - challenging the F-22's claim to the next-gen skies. As the world's only operational "Fifth Generation" fighter platform, the F-22s only true "enemy" at this time appears to be the growing pains involved with her complex and highly technical internal systems. The F-22 was added to the USAF inventory to replace the aging McDonnell Douglas / Boeing F-15 Eagle series of air superiority / multi-role fighters in an effort to meet the then-current and any proposed future threats as part of the Global Strike Task Force.Ĭoupled with the upcoming Lockheed F-35 Lightning II multirole aircraft, the USAF will field a potent "one-two" punch for generations to come. She is the newest fighter design in the Air Force stable and the most cutting-edge fighter mount currently in existence. The Lockheed F-22 "Raptor" represents a culmination of decades-worth of data collection, testing and evaluation for the United States Air Force (USAF).
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