High quality, with an extraordinary amount of text and color (!) for a Ginter publication. This volume qualifies as a book instead of the monograph typical of the Air Force Legends series.
The author who has intimate 1st hand perspective of the YF-23,starts with a history of stealth aircraft and their impact on the USAF and the contemporary design philosophies of the competing companies. Each phase of the competitions that led to the ATF competition are well illustrated with the competing designs. One can see the precursors of the Rockwell HiMat, Grumman X-29, the McDonnell Douglas A-12 and others as the companies evolved their designs to meet the changing USAF requirements. This alone makes the book worthwhile!
The chapters on construction and flight test are also well described along with the skepticism of test flight crew about the performance envelope of the airframe and fire control systems during the flight control and simulation phases of development. (The author was a F-105G pilot.)
Significant coverage of the F/B-23 and the proposed naval versions are also provided making this single volume complete for the vast majority of readers. Also, unusually for this series, a bibliography is provided. (Mostly magazine articles and internal USAF documents.)
The author also delves briefly in system descriptions while providing lavish amounts of photographs and cutaway drawings of the YF-23, its precursors and proposed derivatives.
I believe the Air Force Legends is usually aimed mostly for modelers. This volume caters not just to modelers, but anyone who has an interest in the YF-23.
Highly recommended! ( )