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Just hours after Concorde had touched down for the last time, Forster made his own move into the aviation industry with a sky rocket that lifts the Royals to the verge of the Play-Off spots.
Royals striker Nicky Forster grabbed a wonder goal as Neil Warnock's promotion chasers wasted a chance to snatch back the first division top spot. Recently out-of-form Reading have now bagged nine points from their last four games.
United, who had won just one of their last five games, looked as short of gunpowder as the Royals did on Tuesday night. The lack of a Forster-style firework cost the Bramall Lane side and ensured that they tumbled to their second successive home defeat.
In theory the Royals should have been cut to shreds by the Blades, but in theory Steve Coppell's side don't score from corners. The Berkshire side had failed to net directly from a set piece for more than two years but brought that abysmal run to a dramatic end on a night of high drama in Sheffield.
Welsh international Adie Williams, a scorer in this fixture last year, swept Reading ahead in the seventh minute after poor marking in the United area.
Full back Nicky Shorey delivered a corner from the left which was headed in at the near post by the unmarked Williams. Loanee Paul Gerrard got a hand to the ball but was unable to stop the implausible goal from a corner kick from happening.
The Reading that we have been so used to in recent weeks reared their ugly head just moments later, allowing the home side to get back on level terms with an all to common and basic error.
United were back on level terms just three minutes after Williams opened the scoring when midfielder Stuart McCall touched his free-kick to Michael Brown. His low cross from the right was finished off by Ashley Ward from five yards, the former Bradford man's third of the season.
Things nearly got worse for Coppell's side, Brown almost snatched the lead in the 27th minute, steaming in to meet a Mike Whitlow cross only to pull a fierce header inches wide of the near post.
Spurred on by their leveller, the home side made a first half surge for the lead. Ashley Ward saw a low strike pushed away by visiting keeper Marcus Hahnemann before Reading almost grabbed a second, but the diving Gerrard stopped James Harper's first-time shot from 15 yards.
One heart-stopping moment seemed to follow another in Hahnemann's penalty area. The Sheffield United goal machine so nearly clunked into action as full-back Rob Kozluk had a fierce effort pushed away.
But, with half time approaching, Forster hit a belter against the run of play to warm the hearts of the five-hundred strong army of Royals loyalists who had made the trip up North to chilly Sheffield.
Thirty-year-old Forster, who has received heavy criticism in recent days, powered past flailing red-and-white shirted defenders before cutting inside and bamboozling Gerrard by powering the ball into the top right hand corner from 25-yards for his eighth of the season.
In the second half the home side pressed for a leveller but rarely looked like frightening Berkshire's best into submission. Michael Brown, still not back to his best after a spell out though injury, spooned the ball over the bar in the 62nd minute in a rare assault on Hahnemann's goal.
Playing five across the midfield, Reading were able to dominate the centre of the park so it was perhaps no surprise when Royals midfielders Steve Sidwell and Scott Murray both went close with shots from the edge of the box.
Harper, the third star in the centre-of-the-park trio, also almost snatched a third with a 20-yard strike, the ball skidding inches wide of the target.
Coppell withdrew Andy Hughes late in the game, replacing him with Kevin Watson in an attempt to add steel that United wouldn't have been able to match even when their local industry was in its heyday.
The atrocious month of September is beginning to be forgotten as an ever-more assured Reading side begin to power back towards the Play-Offs. Time will tell if results of this magnitude can be repeated on a regular basis, but it was a vintage Royals display.