Test Pilot Explains The YF-23 Black Widow’s Awesomely Innovative Flight Control System

Updated Nov 27, 2020 6:35 PM EST

As we continue our series on the YF-23 Black Widow , an aircraft that has captured imaginations like few non-successful aircraft designs ever have, we now get an unprecedented look at the aircraft’s unique and highly innovative flight control system from one of Northrop’s top test pilots, Roy Martin . Once again, this video comes to us from the awesome Western Museum of Flight , the same place where YF-23 test pilot Paul Metz explained why the aircraft lost to the YF-22. It provides some fascinating details about lesser-known aspects of the YF-23 , an aircraft that was packed with new technologies , in a similar manner as to how an F-22 test pilot recently explained the incredible flight control system on that jet, which was the end result of Lockheed winning the Advanced Tactical Fighter tender .

Some of the highlights include the “accel-decel throttle’ that allowed pilots to fly the aircraft via controlling its speed instead of thrust via the throttle. This dynamic auto-throttle-like setup was apparently really intuitive and helped pilots keep their attention on other pressing tasks, like looking out of the cockpit, instead of trying to maintain the kinetic state. Martin notes that controlling the YF-23’s speed traditionally was a bit of a hassle as it was so ‘slippery’ that it could accelerate away as a result of just a moment of inattention.

Tiny air data pressure holes replaced pitot tubes for primary air sensor data on the YF-23. The small constellations of holes are so small you wouldn’t even know they were there. This was a first for a fighter and the tech was pioneered to a more limited degree on the top-secret Tacit Blue technology demonstrator .

Small, but super powerful actuators had to be developed to control the aircraft’s ‘flaperons’ as the jet’s wings were so thin a normal actuator would not fit. The massive widely splayed tailerons also required a new type of actuator called a ‘two-stage direct drive actuator.’ The issue was the huge tails would have to be able to move rapidly at slow speeds for dogfighting while also being able to have the power to push super high-pressure air around during high-speed flight well above the speed of sound. As a result, an actuator with two separate chambers was created to be able to accomplish both tasks. It worked extremely well as it is known that YF-23 met all super-maneuverability requirements without complex and heavy thrust vectoring nozzles.

Roy Martin also gets into the crazy simulator Northrop had built, called the Large Amplitude Motion-Based Simulator, in which they pushed the flight handling qualities of the aircraft to the limit before actually flying it. It proved to be amazingly accurate. The simulator itself appears to be a modern marvel and is likely closely related to the Air Force Research Lab’s LAMARS simulator , which was also built by Northrop.

Check out the full video below. Martin is outstanding at conveying the complex nature of topics he is talking about in an easy to digest and conceptual manner. His insights are fascinating, to say the least:

Concat the author: Tyler@thedrive.com

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更新于美国东部时间2020年11月27日下午6:35

在我们继续推出关于YF-23“黑寡妇”战斗机的系列报道之际，这款飞机曾像极少数未成功的飞机设计那样激发了人们的无限遐想。现在，我们将有机会从诺斯罗普公司顶级试飞员之一罗伊·马丁那里，一窥这款飞机独特且极具创新性的飞行控制系统。这段视频再次来自令人叹为观止的西部飞行博物馆，YF-23试飞员保罗·梅茨也曾在这里解释过该机为何败给YF-22。视频以与F-22试飞员近期讲解该机卓越飞行控制系统的方式类似的方式，揭示了YF-23一些鲜为人知的细节。YF-23是一款融合了众多新技术的飞机，而F-22的飞行控制系统正是洛克希德公司赢得先进战术战斗机招标的最终成果。

其中一些亮点包括“加速-减速油门”，它允许飞行员通过控制速度而非油门推力来操控飞机。这种动态的、类似自动油门的设置显然非常直观，有助于飞行员将注意力集中在其他紧迫的任务上，例如观察座舱外的景色，而不是试图维持飞机的动力状态。马丁指出，传统上控制YF-23的速度有点麻烦，因为它的“滑翔性能”非常出色，稍有不慎就可能加速失控。

YF-23战斗机上，用于采集主要气压传感器数据的微型气压数据孔取代了皮托管。这些小孔排列得非常细小，几乎难以察觉它们的存在。这在战斗机领域尚属首次，而这项技术最初在高度机密的“Tacit Blue”技术验证机上进行了较为有限的应用。

由于该喷气式飞机的机翼非常薄，普通的作动器无法安装，因此必须开发小型但动力超强的作动器来控制飞机的襟副翼。巨大的、向外展开的尾翼也需要一种名为“两级直接驱动作动器”的新型作动器。问题在于，巨大的尾翼既要在低速近距离空战中快速摆动，又要在远超音速的高速飞行中提供足够的动力来推动超高压空气。因此，设计者制造了一种带有两个独立腔室的作动器来完成这两项任务。事实证明，这种作动器非常有效，YF-23 无需复杂笨重的推力矢量喷管即可满足所有超高机动性要求。

罗伊·马丁还深入探讨了诺斯罗普公司建造的名为“大振幅运动模拟器”（LAMBS）的精密模拟器。在实际飞行之前，他们利用这台模拟器将飞机的飞行操控性能推向极限。事实证明，它的精准度令人惊叹。这台模拟器本身堪称现代奇迹，很可能与诺斯罗普公司建造的空军研究实验室的LAMARS模拟器密切相关。

请观看下方完整视频。马丁非常擅长用通俗易懂的方式阐述复杂话题。毫不夸张地说，他的见解令人着迷：

联系作者：Tyler@thedrive.com

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