Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor YF-22A

The first prototype (PAV-1, military serial 87-0700 and civil registration N22YF), fitted with General Electric YF120 engines, lifted off from Palmdale on 29 September 1990 with David L. Ferguson at the controls; the flight lasted 18 minutes, reached 250 knots and 12,500 feet, and ended at Edwards Air Force Base. The second aircraft (PAV-2, 87-0701, N22YX), powered by Pratt & Whitney YF119s, flew on 30 October with chief test pilot Thomas A. Morgenfeld. Unlike the YF-23, the YF-22 fired AIM-9 and AIM-120 missiles from its internal bays and flew at angles of attack of up to 60 degrees, neither of which was a programme requirement. On 23 April 1991 Secretary of the Air Force Donald Rice announced the Lockheed team as the winner: it scored higher on technical grounds, was judged lower risk — the YF-22 had flown considerably more hours and sorties than its rival — and offered more effective programme management. PAV-1 is preserved on display at the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum at Edwards; PAV-2 was relegated to antenna test duties after an accident and later stored at the Rome Laboratory in New York. The YF-22's general aerodynamic layout anticipates that of the production F-22, but the two differ appreciably in the position and design of the cockpit, tail fins and wings, and in internal structural layout.