Spy Craft

In The Science of James Bond, we recognize the Bond franchise as a unique genre: spy-fi. A genre of film and fiction that fuses spy fiction with science fiction. We look at Bond's obsessions with supervillains, the future, and world domination or destruction. And we take a peek under the hood of trends in science and tech, often in the form of gadgets and spy devices.

When I wrote the original version of PILOTS DAWN in the last decade of the previous century, the world was a different place. Three manufacturers of passenger aircraft existed in the United States. Boeing dominated the global market for airliners without serious competition. Airbus, whose share of sales fell short of 20%, was considered by many experts a challenger doomed to failure—if not an outright joke. Politically, the Soviet Union had ceased to exist. The Cold War was over; the KGB had receded into history and expectations of a peaceful democratic Russia were the norm.