The fictional "Airwolf" is described as an advanced prototype supersonic helicopter with stealth capabilities and a formidable arsenal. Airwolf was designed by Charles Henry Moffet (David Hemmings)—a genius with a psychopathic taste for torturing and killing women—and built by "the Firm", a division of the Central Intelligence Agency (a play on the term "the Company", a nickname for the CIA). As the series begins, Moffet and his crew steal "Airwolf" during a live-fire weapons test. During the theft, Moffet opens fire on the Firm's bunker, killing a United States Senator and seriously injuring Firm deputy director Michael Coldsmith-Briggs III (code name "Archangel"). Moffet takes Airwolf to Libya, where he begins performing acts of aggression—such as sinking an American destroyer—as a service for Muammar Gaddafi, who allows Moffet to keep "Airwolf" on Libyan soil.