The year is 1954 two years after the great UFO Flap of 1952 where hundreds of flying saucer sightings were reported all across the nation. Even White House forbidden air space was violated with impunity by unknown aerial objects. Stealth capability might have been demonstrated as well as radar screen targets being tracked would suddenly disappear from the screen once F-94C interceptors out of New Castle AFB had entered within close proximity of the "Bogies" as they were pursued. Project Blue Book headed by Captain Edward Ruppelt had been overwhelmed with reports and had too little resources to respond to such a volume of sightings.

First encounters

Although UFO sightings had been reported as early as before World War I it was during World War II that "Foo Fighters" made their ubiquitous appearance frightening B-17 Bomber crews as some kind of new weapon or German aviators who thought the Allies had invented a revolutionary new flying machine. These sightings prompted General Douglas Mac Arthur to order the formation of a special intelligence group known as the "Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit" tasked with solving the mystery. Their findings were inconclusive. It would not be until 1947 and 1949 that Project Grudge then Project Sign would be formed to further investigate the reoccurring appearance of unknown airborne objects. These two programs were prelude to Project Blue Book, a 23 year study of UFO cases.

A writer weighs in

According to former US Marine Corps Major, Donald Keyhoe, now a journalist whose UFO article of 1950 is probably still the most widely read piece in news history began to suspect from his sources in the Pentagon that a concern over US fighter pilots not being able to identify or intercept fast moving unknown objects that seemed intelligently controlled. Specifications for high mach jet aircraft with better aerodynamics were going out to major defense contractors. Lockheed, Republic, Convair, and North American Aviation were fast designing and testing a new generation of military aircraft known as the "Century" series.

New designs

Beginning with the F-100 Super Saber, first military jet to exceed mach 1, soon to follow would be the F-101 Voodoo, The F-104 Star Fighter, the F-105 Thunder Chief, the F-102 Delta Dagger, the F-8 Crusader, and finally by 1960 the F-4 Phantom 2 these interceptors, fighter bombers multi-role jet planes would be pursuing UFO's over the skies of the nation and even in international air space in years to come and would see action in Vietnam.

Grim admission

According to Strategic Air Command General Benjamin Chidlaw as of 1965 some 3,000 attempted intercepts had occurred over the domestic interior zone of the United States causing losses of many aircraft and pilots. Were these merely mid-air accidents, actual aggressive actions taken by UFO's, or did this also account for disappearances of some US war planes? Donald Keyhoe the former USMC pilot and Major was told privately by Navy pilots that their superiors had ordered them to ram a UFO if they could eject safely. Why? For two reasons-to recover the unknown craft and harvest the technology or to finally knock one out of the air.

Tactics

Two primary considerations that may have influenced fighter interceptor designs would have been to identify friend or foe, to determine intentions if peaceful or aggressive, and to recover advanced technology that might have given enemies of the "Cold War" era of the US a dangerous weapon or technical advantage that could upset the balance of power. By 1955 America already had a fighter aircraft that could reach speeds of 2.25 Mach. The F-4 Phantom by 1959 could reach Mach 2.5 while the Lockheed Super Crusader could reach Mach 3 but lost in competition to the F-4 for general distribution for armed services deployment.

Outclassed

in 1976 an Iranian F-4 Phantom jet fighter chased a bright unknown object across the desert night skies over the Middle East but as most pilots had already found out even at a speed of Mach 2.5 (1,500 mph) the mystery craft could not be caught and even when the US trained pilot managed to get close his instrument panel went dead. When he turned away from the UAP Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon) he regained control of his plane but once steering onto the course of the unknown object again he then lost his electronics once more and was forced to break off the pursuit. This pilot was one of the lucky few to live to tell about his experience as many aviators across the world have never been seen again.