Originally Posted by
arw.ryder
The gear on the YF-23 far forward? Yes. But not forward of the entire wing. To keep the nose gear on the ground and the tail from dragging in such a design, the CG would have to be forward of the main gear and hence forward of the entire wing. That's a non flyable condition. Further, since the wing and fuel it contains and the engines are the most dense parts of the plane, to move the CG forward of the wing with aft mounted engines means adding a massive ballast weight in the nose. That's nonsense.
As an example, look at any Rutan design with no tail surfaces and a canard. If it has a nose gear, the main gear are under the wing. If it has main gear forward of the wing, it has no nose gear and is a tail dragger.