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kbeswick_AT_oculusdesign.com
Help
support www.ThinkinRussian.org
Feel free to contact me regarding anything related
to Firefox. I try to respond to all emails (however I cannot say
how quickly). If you send 'fan mail' it may be posted below, please
let me know if you do not wish to have your email posted. If you
need a mailing address, please contact me first by email.
If you'd like to make a contribution to keep the site running,
please feel free to dontate to the Firefox website Paypal
account, AKA: The "Mitchell Gant Fund"
Like any personal project, it's all blood, sweat, tears and
out-of-pocket expenses. If anyone is willing to help curb
that expense, feel free to help out.
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
I would like to thank the following people
for their help and support in making this project a reality; My wife Ellen for putting up with
my obsessive-compulsive Firefox fixation, William Babington
for providing a lot of the groundwork & background information,
Jack's Uber page - the original Firefox fan website,
Larry Wolfe at JetHangar Hobbies, Phyllis Winkelbauer at Northrop
Aviation, Andy Skow, Joe Cherrie, Kenny Mitchell, Jarrett Broder,
Matthew Howard & Michael Wall (for the wonderful words of
encouragement), Tim Zehner, my friend and illustration-mentor
David Davis along with all of the fine people who have helped
support this website by purchasing my illustrations.
Over
1,000,000
Firefox fans from over 20 different countries have visited this site since August, 2001!
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information, collateral artwork and design elements of this
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