Two teams competed: Northrop Grumman with the YF-23 and Lockheed Martin with the YF-22, which would become the F-22 Raptor.

Northrop Grumman’s YF-23 Prototype was by all accounts an impressive machine with speeds of Mach 2.25 and a high 1.36 thrust-to-weight ratio, yet the stealth fighter jet wound up “losing” an ...