NEW: Filming Location Guidebook added

Haven't you ever wanted to trace the steps of Mitchell Gant through the streets of Moscow (it was actually Vienna) and see the actual filming locations? I always have, and apparently so did Thomas Higginson. He put together a fantastic guidebook with comparison photos and rather entertaining captions.

I'm going to call it the Official Firefox Filming Location Guidebook (unofficially, of course).

RIP: Craig Thomas

A moment of silence for a fantastic author, you will be missed, Craig...

Craig Thomas: Author of Cold War spy stories and inventor of the techno-thriller (Obituary)

Firefox Boat Wrap

So I recently had a request from a huge Firefox fan to design a wrap for his boat!? Sounds crazy right? But it came out awesome!

Note: The above image is a photoshop mockup--not the real deal. I'm still awaiting photos of the actual wrap...

2012 UPDATE: New Website!

Welcome friends, fans and supporters of ThinkinRussian.org! You may notice that the website looks slightly different--that's because I migrated it over to the Google Blogger platform to make updating far simpler and for better SEO positioning. I tried to retain the same overall look & feel since I've had so much positive feedback from everyone over the years. Stay tuned, because there's lots of new Firefox-related information and content coming up...

THIS IS AN OPEN CALL FOR HELP...

I've been getting a TON of requests lately for an FSX UPDATE for the flightsim model. I do not have the FS model building expertise to pull this off, and I haven't been able to track down Owen, so if ANYONE OUT THERE is willing to take on the challenge I'd be more than happy to make the new model available for download on this site. Please contact me if you're up to the challenge!

2009 UPDATE

Wow, it seems like I update this site once every three years now! Sorry about that, but hey, at least I finally DID it. There's lots of NEW STUFF that's been added throughout the site, starting with a freshened design. Yes, I could have gone "blog style" with this, but I think it would have lost some of the unique feel that so many visitors have come to appreciate. The big news is that ThinkinRussian.org has officially broken the ONE MILLION PAGE VIEWS barrier!!! It took nearly 10 years to get there, but it's now official. HUGE thanks to everyone who has supported the site over the years. Like I said in the beginning, it's been a labour of love....

I've made a bunch of changes in every corner of the site, so browse through and check everything out, My hope is that stumbling upon this website gave you that rush of nostalgia you were probably seeking. If you were looking for the Mozilla Firefox browser, you can get that here It's my personal browser choice, of course!

2006 UPDATE

Happy New Year to everyone, 2006 is going to be a big year I think. The big news is that a NEW limited edition series of prints for 2006 is NOW AVAILABLE! The new print is 24"x18", printed at high resolution on artist canvas as before. The key difference include; A new three-quarter view of the plane, pilot figure added for scale, cockpit-panel inset view, metric dimensions, and updated technical information atop a new backdrop. And don't miss the FREE download of the MiG-31 Technical 'Whitepaper' available as a PDF download on the Illustration Page.

I'm also proud to announce that the flight model for MS Flightsim 2002/2004 was published in & packaged with the "Add-Ons" section of "Flugsimulator Jahrbuch 2004/2005", the German edition of Flightsimulator Yearbook 2004/2005. For nearly a year running, our Firefox model was consistently in the top 10 downloads on flightsim.com. Here's a gallery of screengrabs originally provided courtesy of Jason Schmidt.

2005 UPDATE

It's been two years since my last big update to the website, and I decided it was time for another. The big news is that the illustration has been updated to a NEW limited edition series of prints! The original series of prints is NOW CLOSED OUT. The new series is the same size, layout and canvas type but with several key adjustments made. Aside from the freshened homepage graphic, I've added more information to the Hangar section about an upcoming garage-kit model being produced by William Babington that will soon be available for purchase to the public. Lastly, there's a new design format for the slideshow section & screenshots section of the flightsim model page.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to my website and online resource of information dedicated to the aircraft featured in the 1982 movie, "Firefox" The focus here is predominantly on the aircraft and it's associated special effects itself, not necessarily the film, director or plotline. For that, there are probably better resources on the net.

I'm more interested in what people didn't get to see enough of, a really well thought-out design of a fictional aircraft. The real credit goes to Greg Jein (master model maker & artist) who came up with the initial concepts, and Clint Eastwood and John Dykstra for making it all happen on screen. Craig Thomas authored the original novel which the film was based upon.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

There are many different magazine articles and publications available where you can read about the making of the film. The first one that comes to mind is the October 1982 issue of CINEFEX (vol 10). There is also a rare article in the August 1982 issue of AirPower magazine (discontinued) which gives some brief insight on the design of the aircraft from the standpoint of pilots and aircraft engineers. But, for the most part it wasn't much mentioned. It was always that 'elusive black jet that you don't get to see enough of in the movie...'

This website is the product of a personal interest I have had in this enigma of a plane for the past two decades. I realize this seems like a pretty elaborate and time consuming effort for a product of Hollywood special effects that technically never existed, but after doing extensive research into the subject, I found a plethora of people that were as obsessed with this plane as I was! Thus, the wheels were set in motion to meet the demand. The illustration became the catalyst for the website.

In the 12 years this website has been online it has been visited by over 3,000,000 unique visitors from 22 different countries around the world. The feedback I've had has been enormously positive, and I've managed to meet quite a few cool people along the way. Thanks to everyone for your continued support in this techno-fansite!