Lockheed's stealth fighter prototype takes to the air over the Mojave
By the fall of 1990, the Air Force had spent nearly a decade searching for a jet that could outfly the Soviet Su-27 and MiG-29. On September 29, Lockheed test pilot Dave Ferguson took the YF-22 prototype, serial 87-0700, off the runway at Palmdale, California, and set it down eighteen minutes later at Edwards Air Force Base. Twin General Electric YF120 engines powered the diamond-winged jet through its first flight test, the first flight in a head-to-head competition with Northrop's rival design. The Air Force would not pick a winner for seven months.
The YF-22's flight test began the fly-off that decided America's next air superiority fighter, a program the Pentagon started because it feared Soviet jets could outclass the F-15. The prototype's success over Northrop's YF-23 set the Air Force on the path to the F-22 Raptor, the fighter that defined American air dominance for the next two decades.
