[1] Some parts of the plot were passively referenced in Brown's 1991 novel Sky Masters, which is set two years before most of the events in Cheetah.

Set in the then-future of 1996, Day of the Cheetah details the story of US Air Force pilot Kenneth Francis James, who is actually a Soviet KGB deep-cover agent assigned to the US High-Technology Aerospace Weapons Center (HAWC) at Groom Lake.

His job at the secret base involves testing the highly advanced XF-34 Dreamstar, which is equipped with a thought-control interface.

James hijacks the fighter, causing Patrick McLanahan and the rest of the HAWC crew to try to recover or destroy the plane before it reaches the USSR.

The Dreamstar is recovered after a number of aerial dogfights over Arizona, the Caribbean, and Costa Rica, but the fallout generated by the incident forces the closure of HAWC.