Firefox Fan Mail

First let me thank you for bringing the firefox alive for flightsimmers, I’ve been a fan since the movie came out and being able to fly the thing in the simulator brought back a lot of good memories and this thing rocks, you did a great job.
- Mario Tondreau (Montreal)

Love the bird, and fly it whenever I want to get somewhere FAST! What a great job on the model --- and the website, too! Any chance of an update for FSX?
- Dan Block

RESPONSE: Your prayers have been answered, Dan! Check out the flightsim page for the FSX download...

I have just bought a studio 2 Firefox model off ebay for £60 GBP. I've not received the model yet, but I was wondering if you could tell me what work needs doing to make the model accurate? Any help would be much appreciated.
- Keith Beckett (UK)

RESPONSE: Unfortunately, the problems with the Studio 2 model are that of proportion and dimension, which makes it nearly impossible to 'modify' without starting from scratch. Don't get me wrong, as models of fictional aircraft go, it's not terrible--it's just not terribly accurate either.

I’ve flown the Firefox from Bilyarsk (well, as near as I could get) to Norway and on to Scotland in Flight Sim 2004, but it would be much more fun if it was an armed aircraft and I could dogfight with other aircraft. Is it also possible to put modern-day adversary aircraft into the Combat flight sim for the MiG31 to encounter and fight? How?
- Paul Hackett-Evans

RESPONSE: That's a great question, and I wish I had an answer for you! If anyone is willing to try this, I'm happy to help out in whatever capacity possible.

I'm the gentleman who used the many pics from your site to get a model of the Firefox built by a model plane company. I was wondering if you had any luck with the model plane company in getting a wooden Mig-31 model of your own or posting it on your site? Just wanted to check and see.
- Bill Leonard

 
RESPONSE: Hi Bill, I see that the wooden model has been produced, but I never got one from them. Maybe I'll ask again? I'd absolutely LOVE one. I'm also willing to trade a stretched-canvas Firefox print for either a completed model kit or a wooden display model. Anyone...?? ;)


Hi there, just thought I'd say you've done one hell of a job. Never thought there would be someone who'd put so much effort into researching a fictional aircraft.
- Yeo SK (Malaysia)

RESPONSE: Thanks Michael, it's people with your kind of attitude that drive me to do things like this in the first place!

It looks like we may finally be getting a Firefox to fly in the Strike Fighters/Wings Over Vietnam/Wings Over Europe flight sim series. I asked the creator of the model if he was going to release it - he specialises in WW2 aircraft and created it on a whim and then had second thoughts about releasing it - and he said he had passed it on to another modder. I spoke to him and he said he would try to fit it into his release schedule soon. We just had the 'F\A-37 Talon' released by yet another modder, so the Firefox should give his bird a rude suprise! Not quite sure how we're going to mod the tought guided weapons system though! Keep up the good work...
- Allen Burton

 
RESPONSE: Thanks Allen, keep me posted on this as I am VERY interested in offering this for download on the site.


I was just looking over the new Google patent search feature, found drawings of the Testors stealth aircraft and such, and was wondering if you would happen to know if they may have patented the design of the Firefox from the movie? Do you know who designed the actual model?
- David Briedis

RESPONSE: Hi David, there is no patent on the design of the fictional Firefox that I am aware of. The original design was envisioned by master Hollywood modelmaker Greg Jein (of Star Trek fame) along with creative direction/input from Clint Eastwood and John Dykstra.

I know you are a busy person. I don't know how much fan mail you get, but this is one to add to the pile. Not just for rendering a fascinating aircraft, but for being a credit to your profession, and for inspiring me to reevaluate what art, illustration, and design mean to me, as well as what all the ideas I've had in my head for so long can become.....
- Michael Wall
 
RESPONSE: Thanks Michael, it's people with your kind of attitude that drive me to do things like this in the first place!

Love your site! Oh, yeah, the tag on my '85 Cutlass? "F1REFOX." One with "I" was taken! :(
- Frank May

My name is John Lewis, I'm 30 years old, and for the past 17 years, i TOO have had this Firefox fettish. I have scoured the internet for awhile now, and happened upon your site which, i must say, blew me away. You have done an amazing job with it, and the resources you have gathered are staggering to say the least. Thanks a million for everything you have put into this, and thank god i have found it. Keep up the good work, and i'll be keeping tabs on the site JUST IN CASE you find more...
- John Lewis

You have a reconnaisance photo of a Firefox in Edwards AFB? Is this photo real or imaginary? Does this plane exist? It actually flies? How fast? What's the story behind this photo? Hope you can tell me something more about this photo... If it exists - I already have movie imaginations about stealing it from the US Airforce!
- Larry Yee
 
RESPONSE: That photo is a real satellite photo grabbed from Terraserver, courtesy of the USGS, but I added the Firefox into the photo digitally. =) So yes it's real, but not entirely.....

I have visited your website about the Mig-31 firefox and I would (like) to tell you: it's a good work!
- Benoit (France)

My sincere compliments on an exceptionally cool web site!!
- Andrew Unger

Wow and I thought I was the only one who thought the movie Firefox was great. I always thought the aircraft was the neatest thing from Hollywood in 1982. Good job on the site and thanks for the information.
- Pierce Barnard

I just finished watching Firefox on cable and decided to check out what I could find on-line about the coolest plane ever designed. I came across your site and I love it. I hope you don't run out of those technical illustrations before I can get my hands on one, what a fantastic piece of artwork. My sincere compliments.....
- Curt Neal

Hello, and I have a question, regarding the MIG-31 Firefox. Did the US just find out the truth of the MIG-31 during the 90's? I mean did the government act like the US public when they were thinking of the Stealth Fighter the F-117? And any way the site is the best regarding the Firefox I have seen thus far.
- Magnum
 
RESPONSE: The MiG-31 is loosely based upon the MiG-25 Foxbat and MiG-31 Foxhound, both of which were top secret aircraft in the Soviet inventory. Firefox was never real, but it was based upon real concepts about stealth technology at the time. A 'real life' Firefox incident actually took place on September 6, 1976, Russian fighter pilot Victor Belenko decided he had had enough. On a routine mission, he veered off course, kicked in the afterburners. Flying mach speed at sea-level to avoid surface-to-air missiles and other Russian fighters, Victor headed for Japan. With only 30 seconds of fuel remaining, he blazed into Hakodate's airport in a MIG-25 Foxbat. In one of Russia's most prized secret weapons, Victor narrowly missed a departing jetliner, skidded and screeched across the runway, blew a tire and nearly nailed a large antenna. Belenko had arrived in the west.

(The MiG-25 Foxbat being inspected by Western officials, the plane was literally taken apart and put back together again before it was returned to the Soviet Union).

Hi! Thought I'd email you on your site. I started looking through it, and was amazed at how slick it's presentation is. I mean, the logos and the pics etc. are just cool. I first saw the 'Fox kick ass when I was 9, in fact it was the very first video I ever rented. I remember later on at high school, my friends used to laugh at it and say it looked crap because it was 'a square stupid right angle thing'. Then the stealth came out. Get my drift....? Firefox is just cool. Makes the SR-71 look 'retro'! Anyway, at age 26, I STILL love the Fox, and I am dying to see it again. I haven't seen it for a few years. Still nice site. Even nicer models.
- Stu Rankin

Hello from Bonnie Scotland. William sent me your Firefox site address and I've just checked it out. I am another fan of this superb aircraft, and I just wanted to say that I appreciate all the hard work that you've put into your site. As a fellow Artist and graphic designer I think your graphics are cool. As a Technical Illustrator of the 'old school' I draw by hand on the board, I appreciate your superb colour illustration, I can tell from experience that you enjoyed every minute of it, the detail is amazing.....
- Tom Scriven (Scotland)

RESPONSE: It's always great to hear from a fellow illustrator, feel like helping me out with the next illustration?? It's going to be a CUTAWAY....ouch.....

Congrats on a excellent site! Thank you for letting me know that it opened! It was worth the wait!
- Matthew Howard