The Space Age Jet Terrorized by a Rust Bucket

The Lockheed F-94 Starfire was built to solve a terrifying Cold War problem: enemy aircraft were attacking at night, when American pilots could barely see what they were hunting. Equipped with radar, an afterburner, and a dedicated radar operator, the F-94 became one of America’s most advanced interceptors. Yet when it arrived in Korea, crews were initially forbidden from chasing enemy aircraft across the front because Washington feared its secret radar technology could fall into Soviet hands. When those restrictions finally loosened, the Starfire proved what radar-guided night fighting could do. In January 1953, Captain Ben Fithian and Lieutenant Sam Lyons intercepted a La-9 in total darkness and are believed to have become the first crew to shoot down an aircraft without ever seeing their target before it was hit. But the F-94 soon encountered an enemy it was almost too advanced to fight: the primitive Po-2 biplane. The tiny wood-and-fabric aircraft flew so slowly that Starfires repeatedly overshot it, with one F-94 stalling into the sea while trying to stay behind a target at just 110 mph and another colliding directly with a Po-2 during an attack. Lockheed responded with the rocket-armed F-94C, only to discover that firing its own rockets could blind the crew with smoke and even choke out the engine. Back in America, Starfires were even scrambled during the mysterious 1952 Washington, D.C. UFO incidents, chasing radar contacts and strange lights that were ultimately logged as unknowns. This is the strange story of an interceptor that pioneered the technologies that would define future American air defense, yet spent much of its short career battling enemies, and sometimes its own systems, that its designers had never anticipated. --- Join Dark Skies as we explore the world of aviation with cinematic short documentaries featuring the biggest and fastest airplanes ever built, top-secret military projects, and classified missions with hidden untold true stories. Including US, German, and Soviet warplanes, along with aircraft developments that took place during World War I, World War 2, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf War, and special operations mission in between. As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Skies sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect and soundtracks for emotional impact. We do our best to keep it as visually accurate as possible. All content on Dark Skies is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. We are history enthusiasts and are not always experts in some areas, so please don't hesitate to reach out to us with corrections, additional information, or new ideas.