Firefox (novel)

Firefox is a thriller novel by British novelist Craig Thomas, published in 1977. Set amid the Cold War, the plot recounts an attempt by the CIA and MI6 to steal a highly advanced Soviet fighter jet. The lead character, Mitchell Gant, is an American fighter pilot and Vietnam veteran turned spy. The novel was made into a 1982 film adaptation produced, directed by, and starring Clint Eastwood. A bestseller, the book had 33 printings in the 17 years following its publication, and has been credited with starting the "techno-thriller" genre. Friends with Royal Air Force backgrounds helped Thomas research the novel's subject. Despite its level of detail, he finished it in just four and a half months. Sphere Books printed a 250,000-copy paperback edition, leveraging the recent 1976 defection of Viktor Belenko, a Soviet Air Defence pilot who flew his MiG-25 Foxbat to Japan and gained asylum in the United States. Belenko's defection occurred just before Thomas finished the novel, and is referred to in the story. Firefox was followed by a sequel, Firefox Down, in 1983.