In the early 1990s, Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager (one of my boyhood heroes) made TV adverts plugging the Northrop YF-23 “Advanced Tactical Fighter” (ATF). At the time, I thought that if an icon of Chuck Yeager’s stature plugged the YF-23, it was a surefire bet to win the US Department of Defense (DOD) contract. But that was not the case.