... and the fictional MiG-31 Firefox...
OK, this has very little to do with books as such. But my favourite author has been and remains Craig Thomas and the reason I started reading his thrillers was because of the movie FireFox, the novel it was based on, and the sequel novel. (Yes, something was called FireFox before the web browser.)
The original novel FireFox came out in 1977 and dealt with a Russian supersonic stealth fighter that NATO codenamed FireFox. I don't think they called it a stealth fighter in the book but it was invisible to radar which is the same thing.
Clint Eastwood made a move of the book in 1982. It has it's critics but I find it a good solid Cold War era thriller and the plane they designed was pretty darn cool looking.
Craig Thomas went on to write a sequel novel called FireFox Down in 1983 that continued the story at the point where the first book and movie ended.
The US eventually revealed their own stealth aircraft at the end of the 1980s but the Russians never did get around to building a FireFox. So yesterday's news on the BBC website caught my eye. Russia has flown it's new Sukhoi T-50 stealth aircraft, also known as the PAK FA, and shown it off on TV.
The BBC article is at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8486812.stm
and the Times newspaper has an article at
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7007913.ece
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