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Aircraft and configuration
Top Mach Studios represents both YF-23A prototypes. PAV-1 uses YF119 engines and PAV-2 uses YF120 engines, with different performance. The simulated aircraft has custom fly-by-wire controls, retractable landing gear and automatic flaperons that also participate in yaw control and speedbraking.
YF-23A PAV-1 / PAV-2
Top Mach Studios · Read more ↗Meet YF-23A PAV-1 / PAV-2
Top Mach Studios represents both YF-23A prototypes. PAV-1 uses YF119 engines and PAV-2 uses YF120 engines, with different performance. The simulated aircraft has custom fly-by-wire controls, retractable landing gear and automatic flaperons that also participate in yaw control and speedbraking.
History & design
The Advanced Tactical Fighter demonstrator
Northrop and McDonnell Douglas developed the YF-23 as an Advanced Tactical Fighter prototype. The US Air Force museum identifies Paul Metz as its chief test pilot and records that he made its first flight in August 1990.
National Museum of the US Air Force · Former test pilot Paul Metz: museum lecture biography ↗Museum biography of YF-23 chief test pilot Paul Metz
A test pilot across two competing programmes
Metz later became chief test pilot for the F-22 and flew that aircraft for the first time in 1997. His career connects the experimental YF-23 phase with the fighter programme that proceeded into production; the YF-23 itself remained a demonstrator.
National Museum of the US Air Force · Former test pilot Paul Metz: museum lecture biography ↗Museum biography of YF-23 chief test pilot Paul Metz
Systems & details
Controls and equipment
Automatic trim acts through the primary elevator. Engaging the simulated autopilot disables fly-by-wire and manual input; stick displacement disconnects it.
Prototype and imagined production aircraft
Top Mach’s documentation distinguishes its two YF-23 prototype representations from an imagined operational F-23. The latter adds equipment and capabilities that were not the configuration of the competing demonstrators. The manual’s simulated fly-by-wire behaviour, automatic trim and control limits describe the add-on implementation. Keeping the prototype selection separate from the fictional production aircraft makes the differences in cockpit equipment and performance easier to understand without turning proposed features into historical facts.
In your simulator
No released simulator product is listed for this aircraft in the developers reviewed. Announced products are excluded.
Manuals & resources
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Simulator documentation
Controls and equipmentYF-23A PAV-1 / PAV-2
Automatic trim acts through the primary elevator. Engaging the simulated autopilot disables fly-by-wire and manual input; stick displacement disconnects it.
Black Widow manual · pages 1, 7–10, 15–16 and 53–56
Top Mach Studios · Read the source ↗Read the original documentation from the people who created it. Manuals open on their publisher’s website.
Simulator documentation
YF-23A PAV-1 / PAV-2 — simulator documentationTop Mach Studios · Black Widow manual · pages 1, 7–10, 15–16 and 53–56Aircraft history
Former test pilot Paul Metz: museum lecture biographyNational Museum of the US Air Force · Museum biography of YF-23 chief test pilot Paul MetzBuilt-in force-feedback profiles
Read the documentary basis, editable starting settings and remaining questions for the aircraft you fly. Each explanation refers to the exact profile revision shown.
Catalogue programme-20261011-v3 · 1 profile choice
Top Mach Studios YF-23A PAV-1 / PAV-2
Top Mach Studios · Free and Pro · Revision 1 · Inherited starting point
MSFS 2020 · MSFS 2024
The YF-23 prototypes in PAV-1 and PAV-2 engine configurations.
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