MiG- Firefox

Although this aircraft was is off a movie, it is a rather good design of an aircraft, incorperating stealth etc. Also very similar to the MiG-1.44:












Your opinion ?


[edit on 21-1-2005 by Kenshin]

Dunno, maybe the MiG designer had a night out at the pictures and thought "Hmmmm, I can do better than that!"

for a bit I thought it was real
heh heh
it is one nice design through!!!
found this interesting webite on it
thinkinrussian.org...
seems like this plane has a fan base!

`I remember that movie; forget the name though...It was about a super stealth russian plane that would have changed the balance of the cold war.
So the americans smuggle a pilot into russia to fly that plane back to the good ol' US of A. The daring plan involves a rendevous with a US sub in the arctic ice (seen in a cpl of the pics), for refueling during its voyage back to the US.
A good movie though personally I wished it would 've been the other way around!! ..I guess its like that with me and all other american propaganda-type movies..

Except for "crimson tide", that was a good movie..w/o any 'evil empire' involved

As for the jet it looks amazing, just as it looked when I saw it first over 10 years ago..
Although technically speaking it has too many sharp edges, the jagged wing design is just to make it look more 'spicy'
Is that a 2 intake-2 engine design or a 4 intake-2 engine design?

[edit on 21-1-2005 by Daedalus3]

The movie was 'Firefox' and the book it was based on was actually by a British author. I read the book in the late '70's and it had the blurb 'soon to be a major film' on the back. I waited years for that film to come out then when I saw it I was so disappointed! Maybe I shouldn't have read the book first

You "READ" the book in the late 70s?? Pardon my intrusiveness, but how old are you man??! No offence of course..Me I'm a confused 21....
And yeah I haven't read the book, saw the movie when I was like 10..saw I'll read the book, thanks for the reco, waynos

I'm 39, which is why I go on about older planes so much, I know how they feel. I read the book when I was 12, I was quite bright then, I don't know what went wrong.

Im with Daedalus3 on this one, how old are you Waynos? (if you dont mind telling, that is).

Myself? Im feeling old at 25

No really, I am actually that ancient!

There's a few of us old gimmers about Waynos.

I have a couple of years on you, but just a couple mind.

It was Craig Thomas that wrote the book and I read it at the time myself.

I dunno these young whipper-snappers, dunno what they missed.

Proper seriously tooled up opponents and a genuinely scary threat of over-kill, with the distinct possibility of it all being over in a flash (if only by accident - as almost happened on at least 3 occassions we know about).

It seems the best days have been and gone (for a while anyway) it's all what goes in the airframe as much as the airframe itself these days.

Besides hints at yet another black vaguely triangular flattened stealth shape (that looks like it was made out of soap and left out in the rain) it's all gone pretty quiet design-wise.

Not like the 60's, 70's, 80's & early 90's, huh?

That looks like a beautiful plane. Was a prototype ever made?
And, are the "real" looking pictures from the movie or are they actually real?

Waynos im 13. Plane looks cool. Even cooler if it was real.

P.S Raptors better

Hmm, strange how the MiG-31 Designation was skipped, there is a MiG-30 and a MiG-33, but no MiG-31.

Lol, yea the FireFox was never real, it only exists in the movie and book.

Plus, the concept of it is not practical because it was thought of in the mid 70's.

Shattered OUT...

You are mistaken shattered, there is no MiG 30, in fact there are no even numbered MiGs at all. The nearest MiG has ever come to building a bomber, the MiG 27, still carries the odd number of a fighter. the MiG 31 is the Foxhound that was based on the MiG 25.

Originally posted by waynos
You are mistaken shattered, there is no MiG 30, in fact there are no even numbered MiGs at all. The nearest MiG has ever come to building a bomber, the MiG 27, still carries the odd number of a fighter. the MiG 31 is the Foxhound that was based on the MiG 25.

Crap, then were did I get MiG-33 and MiG-30 from??? Hmmm....

Shattered OUT...

Isn't the MiG-33 a MiG-29M?

Shame on me, i've never seen Firefox...Only the plane

i've flow firefox in a flight simulator,

flight characheristics are worse than that of a mig-25

Originally posted by titus
i've flow firefox in a flight simulator,

flight characheristics are worse than that of a mig-25

You realize that it was just an idea from a book/movie, right? No actual airplane (to include a prototype) was ever made.

Hello everyone,
I'm new to this board. It looks to have alot to offer. I'm a professional model maker by trade, and love to see new innovative designes
This thread, however holds a special place for me. Loved the Firefox plane since I was a kid. I'm only 38 but what the heck. I adore this design..no acurate models of it exsist of it though, but that is all about to change. I've been painstakingly rsearching this Airplane for 10 years now and am constructing a 1/32 scale replica of the filming miniature.

Anyway,
Here's what I know about Firefox. It was Filmed in 1982 by Warner Bros using the effects house Apogee Studios. The plane was deigned by Greg Jien originally, then reworked and delvoped for radio control ducted fan flying models by Grant McCune and associates. Three of these 1/12 scale miniatures were built, two crashed due to unexpected harsh conditions experianced in Greenland during filming. The third of these became what is refered to as the HERO and was flown by wire and motion control instead of r/c. The Firefox is a russian plane prototype interceptor powered by two giant turmansky turbine engines. capable of pushing the plane to mach 5 +
One thing little known perhaps not at all. Originally the drawings for the PP1 Firefox were taken over to Ben Rich at Lockeeds Skunkworks, to ensure they weren't stepping on the skunkworks toes so to speak. Ben said they were fine, so Apogee proceeded on with the building of the planes for the film..For all the trivia buffs, the Mig 31 Foxhound did indeed exsist, but had not been publicly known about yet, Apogee had no idea of the real Mig's exsistance, yet used the same designation for the Firefox film interceptor....kinda cool I think.

The pics you have posted of the plane are taken from one of two sites: Thinkinrussian.org or the Craig Thomas webpage tribute to the film and the novels he's written over the years

The second picture as you scroll down is of the 63" hero Radio controlled Firefox.

The second to last photo is of the artist illistration of the Firefox using the only reference known at the time,my old CAD drawings. It was Kurt Beswik that made this illistration. Kurt , at one time on his site gave me credit for this. I understand many model replicas have been made using my CAD drawings to start with, glad to help anyway that's my 2 cents

ohh for those interested...plane is 756" long or 63' long. It was 17' high, sorry the width escapes me at the moment, but you can acurately scale it using this information.

Best,
William

[edit on 21-1-2005 by Wbnemo1]

Originally posted by SmokeyTheBear
Waynos im 13. Plane looks cool. Even cooler if it was real.

P.S Raptors better

Seeing how your 13, we can all look past your statement. If you had seen the movie you would know that if it was built nothing would be better, not even the raptor nor the MiG-1.44. But the plane is a movie prop, oh well.