The brilliant, yet sociopathic engineer Dr. Moffet (David Hemmings), builds the advanced attack helicopter Airwolf for the F.I.R.M., a covert agency of American intelligence, pronounced in informal conversation as The Firm. During the initial test flight, Moffet attacks the testing facility, Red Star Control, steals his creation and takes it to Libya having deleted the blueprints from the F.I.R.M. computers. To get it back, F.I.R.M. operative Archangel, who was injured during the attack, tries to recruit ace helicopter pilot Stringfellow Hawke, who now lives as a recluse in a log cabin after the disappearance of his brother St. John in Vietnam. Hawke falls for Gabrielle Ademaur (Belinda Bauer), one of Archangel's associates, who encourages him to take the mission. Hawke accepts, but only if The F.I.R.M. hands over their classified information on the whereabouts of his missing brother. Hawke and his close friend and mentor, Dominic Santini, run the mission to take back Airwolf, discovering Moffet has used it to destroy American targets for the Libyans, and they will not give up their new toy so easily. Eventually they secure the helicopter and Hawke fulfils his part of the deal, but The F.I.R.M. is not forthcoming with his brother's information. Unsatisfied, Hawke hides Airwolf in an extinct desert volcano and becomes custodian of the aircraft, vowing not to hand it over until The F.I.R.M. finds his brother.

Hawke is given the assignment of finding a test pilot who is about to steal a fighter aircraft to fly it to Russia. Hawke discovers the pilot is an old Vietnam War buddy who would steal the plane as exchange for the return of his half-Vietnamese son (Chad Allen). After the war the boy grew up on the streets of Saigon. He was captured and was being held as a bargaining chip for the plane. James Whitmore, Jr. guest stars as Major Sam Roper. Immediately following the airing of this episode cries of protest erupted in the streets of Hanoi after a young Matthew Ackerson brought to light the fact that a white actor with no Vietnamese background (Chad Allen) was playing the role of a Vietnamese child.

While on a job assignment to Acapulco, Mexico (and unknowingly carrying a young stowaway portrayed by a young Shannon Doherty), Santini's helicopter explodes from a bomb and crashes in a desolate mountain area. Archangel discovers the man behind the bombing is a rival agent who wants to topple Archangel's position at The F.I.R.M. and is using Santini as bait to capture Airwolf.

Archangel sends Hawke and Santini to help a F.I.R.M. double-agent escape the Soviet Union. The agent is in possession of a neurotoxin developed by Russian scientists that is valuable to the F.I.R.M. The mission is complicated by the fact that the agent has refused to leave without his wife and daughter. Airwolf 's fuel consumption rates mean that she cannot cover the requisite distance with the extra weight of three passengers, so Hawke and Santini must make up the difference by removing the weapons systems, leaving the helicopter unarmed as it flies through hostile territory.

Santini is hired by a movie producer to fly as a helicopter stunt pilot for a gold heist scene. Concerned for his friend's safety, Hawke tries to stop him from performing the dangerous stunt. Archangel looks behind the scenes of the movie producer discovering the stunt is actually a cover-up for a real gold robbery arranged by a criminal mastermind.

Hawke gets a lead that his brother St. John is alive and well but being held in a foreign prison camp. Determined to launch a rescue, Hawke suddenly falls unconscious and crashes his helicopter. He wakes up in a hospital from a coma and is told he's been out for one year. He is also told Archangel and Santini were killed after their own attempt to get St. John had failed. Hawke soon realizes nothing is as it seems and discovers that everything is an elaborate ruse by foreign spies to get their hands on Airwolf.

A woman named Sarah LeBow seeks out Hawke and Santini to help avenge the death of her father, who was murdered by a former Nazi named Kruger. Sarah wants to use Airwolf to penetrate Kruger's fortress in Paraguay. Archangel informs Hawke that The F.I.R.M. has their own interests in Kruger and he must not be interfered with. Hawke discovers that their interest lies in the fact that Kruger is also a weapons dealer in possession of an advanced artillery system known as Thor. In this episode, Airwolf reaches an altitude of 86,500 feet during a test flight by Hawke and Santini.

Santini goes on a mission to deliver $2 million dollars raised by Cuban exiles as payment to free comrades who are being held by a Cuban colonel. He is later forced down and kidnapped by a group of mercenaries who also nab the money. A F.I.R.M. listening post confirms Santini's disappearance and Archangel secretly informs Hawke about the incident. Hawke quickly sets out to find his friend while the exiles accuse Santini of stealing the money for himself. Hawke later uncovers The F.I.R.M.'s involvement in hiring the mercenaries for the benefit of the colonel who they are actually in league with.

Archangel sends Hawke and Santini to a small African nation to protect their president during a military coup. Hawke discovers the leader behind the coup is a rogue colonel his brother St. John served with in Vietnam. Hawke goes against Archangel's orders to stay with the president and plans to capture and extract information from the colonel but first he must get past a fleet of helicopter gunships.

Archangel asks Hawke and Santini to test fly an Airwolf simulator designed by Dr. Robert Winchester (David Carradine) who worked with Dr. Moffet on the design of the real Airwolf. Involved in the test is an attractive assistant who unbeknown to all is really an undercover KGB agent with orders to steal the schematics for Airwolf so the Russians can build their own.

Archangel informs Hawke and Santini that a high-ranking government official (Lance LeGault) will be using a newly launched satellite to find the hiding spot for Airwolf. Hawke and Santini plan to hide Airwolf somewhere else until the satellite flies over. On the way to the hiding spot, they discover a female pilot who is stranded in the desert, but suspicions arise that she may be a spy working for the government official who wants Airwolf found. Other notable guest stars include Kathleen Lloyd as Antonia Toni Donatelli and Jeff MacKay as Sergeant Willie Nash.

Hawke learns a Vietnam War buddy of his has been gunned down in the Texas desert by a corrupt and sociopathic Sheriff (Lance LeGault) after the man supposedly escaped from jail. Hawke and Santini fly Airwolf there to investigate the incident and find the conditions of the killing are suspicious. There, Hawke meets and takes interest in a female highway patrol deputy named Caitlin O'Shannessy, who is quite aware of the Sheriff's strange dealings and corruption. After being caught snooping around, the Sheriff has Hawke arrested and taken to a game reserve where ruthless sportsmen pay big money to hunt down people and Hawke is being used as prey. Other notable guest stars include Jeff MacKay as Buddy, David Graf as Billie, and James Whitmore, Jr. as Sam Houston.

An old pilot friend of Santini (Eugene Roche), who lost his nerve to fly after a crash had killed his passengers, has become a drunken recluse living in a trailer in the middle of the desert. The man suddenly comes to Santini with a wild story of seeing strange lights in the sky at night. Everyone dismisses the drunken rant until Santini witnesses the lights himself. He and his friend investigate but disappear. Hawke arrives in Airwolf to search for them and uncovers a secret missile base run by fanatical militants who plan to launch their own nuclear missile against Russia.

Airwolf's systems begin to act erratically when a strange virus infects the on-board computer which periodically seizes auto pilot control and turns the helicopter into a flying terror. Hawke and Santini discover the virus is a trap, a logic bomb, originally planted by Airwolf's designer, Dr. Moffet, and programmed to unleash itself at a specific time unless the proper override code is entered. Hawke and Santini must make the decision to allow the F.I.R.M.'s engineers access to fix the helicopter and risk them trying to seize the aircraft, or deal with the virus themselves. This is the second episode wherein Airwolf, with Moffet jamming its controls, climbs to an altitude of at least 85,000 feet (the first time this was accomplished was in the season one episode Fight Like a Dove during a test flight by Hawke and Santini).

Hawke and Santini rescue Santini's niece Holly from a compound ran by a Mexican crimelord. Once she is safe, Santini keeps an eye on her at his airport, but strange things begin to occur around Santini Air. Hawke and Santini believe the gangsters may be trying to scare Holly, but the sabotage incidents become worse after Hawke turns down Holly's passionate advances and when former Texas Highway Patrol Deputy, Caitlin O'Shannessy, arrives to work for Santini. Caitlin's relationship with Hawke sparks a jealous rage in the troubled Holly leading to suspicions she is behind the sabotage.

An industrial millionaire, Carter Anderson III offers a big paying contract to Hawke and Santini, requesting they use Airwolf to protect and transport him around whenever the need arises. Santini is excited by the offer, but Hawke is skeptical, wondering why the man requires such protection. Unbeknown to them is the fact that Caitlin's new boyfriend is really an assassin who has been hired to kill the millionaire. Matters become worse when Airwolf experiences sudden erratic turbine malfunctions.

Santini is stunned at the news that his daughter Sally Ann has been found dead on a beach on the Caribbean Island of San Remo, apparently from a drug overdose. Hawke is stunned as well because Santini never told him he had a daughter. Both men divert from a F.I.R.M. mission and fly to San Remo to attend the funeral which ends in a bitter argument between Santini and his ex-wife Lila. Upon returning, Santini learns that Lila has been murdered, and he is promptly arrested by police as the prime suspect. Santini is taken back to San Remo and Hawke follows to conduct his own investigation despite objections from Archangel to finish the F.I.R.M. mission. Hawke discovers that Lila and Sally have a connection to a ruthless casino owner who has been trying to take over the island and he is determined to expose the man as the real killer.

Both Hawke and Santini are injured after a botched stunt in a biplane. Hawke injures his arm but Santini fairs worse, injuring his back and is bed-ridden. At the hospital, Hawke is informed that Archangel has been taken prisoner by the criminal ex-Nazi Karl Kruger and is being held in an East-German compound. Mounting a rescue operation, Hawke must add Caitlin to the Airwolf crew to temporarily replace Santini. In a rush to train her, Caitlin does not perform well and nearly blows up Airwolf. Hawke realizes he cannot perform the rescue without Santini's experience, so he and Caitlin spring him against authority, from the hospital, and head to East Germany to save Archangel.

The advanced helicopter, HX1, is stolen by a group of mercenaries and Hawke learns that the tactics used in the theft are similar to those used by the Special Forces unit his brother St. John worked with. Believing the mercenaries may have connections with his missing brother, Hawke takes Airwolf out to track down the stolen helicopter. Hawke's suspicions are confirmed when one of the men turns out to be a war buddy of St. John's who Hawke thought was dead. The incident causes him to have flashbacks and he thinks he sees his brother momentarily. The rogue mercenaries have no intention of returning the HX1 and decide to try out their new toy against Airwolf. During the combat, Hawke's feelings get in his way, and he must fight his emotions if he wants to survive. PJ Soles guest stars as Ellie.

Flight #093 has been hijacked and crash landed into the ocean. The terrorists claim the hostages are still alive and threaten to finish them off unless paid $50 million dollars. The incident becomes personal once Hawke and Santini learn that Caitlin was on the flight and mount a search and rescue operation to find the downed plane. Upon finding it, they discover the terrorists are using a fishing ship armed with rockets to thwart any rescue attempt. Time is running out for the passengers as the plane is filling with water and running out of air. Footage from the movie Airport '77 was used to portray the sunken Boeing 747.

Hawke is presented with an outdated surveillance photo of a P.O.W. camp located deep inside the jungles of Laos where the F.I.R.M. believe his brother St. John is being held prisoner. Hawke mounts a rescue attempt, rounding up members of his old Vietnam War strike team to go in and find him. His strike team is wary of the mission but reconsider once they learn Airwolf will be supplying air support. The team meets up in Bangkok and begins their trek behind enemy lines to locate the camp. Upon arrival, Hawke and his team find the camp abandoned and his brother has been moved elsewhere.

Hawke and Santini go on a job to film some desert terrain footage for Santini's fellow airport business partner Sam Kowal. After completing the job the film is given to Kowal, who later turns up dead after being killed by thugs in a mob hit. The police cannot find any connections Kowal may have had to the mob and determine the hit to be random, but Hawke is not satisfied and begins his own investigation which begins to conflict with the police detective's investigation. Hawke and the detective (Anne Lockhart) soon find that Hawke and Santini may have filmed something in the desert that the mob boss did not want to be seen.

The F.I.R.M. assigns Hawke to investigate a remote facility in Alaska where scientists have been working on an experimental vaccine to counteract the deadly effects of Russian bio-weapon virus set loose in Afghanistan. The F.I.R.M. had already sent a four-man commando team in but they failed to report back. With Santini on vacation, Hawke and Caitlin take the assignment and fly Airwolf to the facility. Upon arrival, they find everyone dead and it looks as if they have all killed each other. Suspicions arise however once Hawke detects a Russian submarine is lurking in nearby waters.

Hawke helps out a troubled Vietnamese man he fought alongside with in Vietnam whose crops are being sabotaged by a rival Vietnamese landowner known as The Spider. When the sabotage turns to murder, Hawke takes matters into his own hands and is determined to bring the Spider to justice.

When a prototype weapon guidance computer called LOKI is stolen by terrorists, Archangel assigns Hawke and Santini to recover the device before it falls into enemy hands. They track the terrorists to a remote mountain lake where the criminals become lost and cannot find their contact. They find a cabin and take the owners hostage, discovering one of them is a pilot, and force him to fly them out. Airwolf gives chase, but when a critical system in the midst of repairs fails, Airwolf is forced down and crashes in a wooded mountainside. Hawke finds his communications are also out and he cannot call for help. Time is running out for the hostages who are holed up in a frozen meat locker, and the terrorists have installed the LOKI device in a helicopter gunship and plan to wreak havoc.

Santini is piloting Airwolf on a mercy mission to deliver a transplant heart to a dying boy in Chicago. Along the way he comes upon a downed aircraft piloted by a millionaire named Carl Barron and renders aid. The millionaire is desperate to make a business meeting in L.A. and offers Santini $50,000 dollars to divert from the heart delivery and take him straight there, but Santini refuses and continues on to Chicago. With the heart delivered, Santini takes Barron to L.A. in record time for a helicopter, but very late for the meeting. Later that evening, for no apparent reason, Barron commits suicide but leaves behind a will that gives all his riches to Santini, the most honest man he ever met. Both Santini and Barron's selfish business partner are stunned by the act, but the partner denies the will and refuses to hand any money over to Santini. Santini clearly does not want to be involved in the first place but quickly finds himself in over his head and his life possibly in danger.

Hawke is on a relaxing fishing trip with a doctor friend named Jason Gifford, but the tranquil setting is disturbed when two South American rebels show up and kidnap Dr. Gifford at gun-point and disable Hawke's Jeep so he cannot follow. Determined to get his friend back, Hawke learns that Gifford had been treating a South American President with antibiotics but the man is suffering from radiation poisoning which had been traced back to Gifford's drugs. The plot thickens when upon arrival in the country, Hawke learns a rebel leader is plotting an attack on the American Embassy and to overthrow the President covertly by slowly killing him off, and win political support by framing Gifford (and American involvement) for the death.

Stringfellow Hawke and Caitlin talk Dominic into hiring a young hotshot pilot, Kevin Hansen, but do not realize that the kid has more in mind than his employer would suspect. Kevin is after the men who killed his beloved Uncle Chester Hansen (Noble Willingham). He taught Kevin how to fly helicopters and was admired and loved by his nephew. When Chester Hansen refused to join some of his business associates in airborne drug-running, he was killed. Whilst performing aerial stunts for Santini Air he spots the dealer's unusual black helicopter and gives chase. Hawke and Santini have no idea what the boy is doing and decide to ground him since he will not tell them about the murder. Secretly, Kevin plans to hunt down the killers and bring them to justice.

Hawke and Santini film aerial footage for a music video by country star Roxanne Marvel. Unbeknown to everyone, Roxanne's corrupt manager is plotting her murder to boost record sales, and replaces her with a body double. Unfortunately for him, the double is not on par to the singing talent of the original and the dupe is revealed, however it is too late since the real Roxanne has already been kidnapped by the manager's thugs. Hawke and Santini mount a rescue in Airwolf and have to recover the star before her big concert appearance.

Hawke is hired to fly a news reporter to interview a group of religious puritans who have an isolated commune near a hydro-electrical dam. Hawke and the reporter discover the villagers have been abducted by a group of terrorists who disable Hawke's helicopter and prevent them from leaving. They are then held as hostages where the leader gives the reporter the news story of her career; his plan is to blow up the Tidewater Dam if fellow extremist members are not released from American prisons. Hawke manages to escape and gets a message through to Santini. He and Caitlin come looking for him with Airwolf, but they are attacked by the terrorist's B-25 bomber which will be used to destroy the dam.

Hawke is assigned to find Larry Mason (Arte Johnson), a disgruntled former F.I.R.M. agent, who has been shafted on his retirement benefits. As a result, Mason begins to reveal classified information to the press about his previous employer and it begins to jeopardize foreign relations and national security. One of the secrets threatening to be leaked is the existence of Airwolf and the whole story behind it. When specific information is leaked about a mission that Mason was never involved with, Hawke becomes suspicious and believes there has to be another mole lurking inside the F.I.R.M. Martin Milner guest stars as Arthur Barnes.

Hawke and Santini are on a job to take atmospheric samples around Mt. Catherine, a dormant volcano that is showing signs of waking up. They collect their data just in time to witness Catherine blow her top and escape the blast. The eruption shock destroys a town in a nearby valley and Hawke and Santini set down to render aid. They find some of the survivors holed up in an abandoned mine where another quake from Catherine nearly kills Hawke as he tries to guide them out. Hawke soon discovers the real danger is not the volcano, but a rival community leader (Mills Watson) with murderous plans to eliminate the town mayor and make it look like an accident. A grown-up Angela Cartwright (Penny Robinson from Lost in Space) guest appears as Mrs. Krannovitch.

Caitlin is hired to fly a group of archaeology students and their teacher to Mayan ruins in South America. In reality, the teacher is really a mastermind thief and is using the trip as cover to steal whatever priceless artifacts he can find. The trip goes astray however, when a group of guerrilla fighters block the road and hijack the bus. The F.I.R.M. learns of the hostage crisis through their South American contacts and Archangel informs Hawke of the situation. He and Santini quickly mount a rescue in Airwolf to find Caitlin and the students. Once the guerrilla fighters see Airwolf arrive they plan to capture the high-tech chopper for themselves and fire a missile to bring her down.

Hawke flies a woman named Angelica (Catherine Hickland) to an Arizona resort where she carries a suitcase full of priceless gems for a buyer named John Bradford Horn (Richard Lynch). A sudden change in plans sends Hawke and Angelica to Horn's private compound in Texas, but upon landing, they are surrounded by armed men and taken prisoner. A videotape is sent to Santini where Hawke explains he is being held captive and tells Santini to deliver Airwolf to Horn's compound by a certain time or he'll be executed. Santini informs Archangel of the situation, who devises a plan. He tells Santini to deliver Airwolf as requested, but he will provide a platoon of soldiers who will storm the compound once Hawke is safe. The plan backfires when Hawke shoots Santini with a tranquilizer gun as soon as he sets Airwolf down.

Hawke is interrupted during a friend's ceremony when Archangel arrives to inform him that Hawke is suspected in a train robbery where the thieves used a Santini Air helicopter and a weapon similar to one Airwolf carries, to stop the train. Hawke, Santini and Caitlin are baffled when the FBI finds the getaway chopper, complete with several bullet holes, parked at Santini's hangar as further evidence. Archangel uses his perks to help Hawke as much as he can but then he is dismissed from the F.I.R.M. under suspicions that he may have also been involved in the robbery. Investigating further, Archangel discovers the F.I.R.M. has built a second Airwolf, dubbed Redwolf, and the designer, Harlen Jenkins (Wings Hauser), who is still loyal to the notorious Dr. Moffet, has a personal vendetta against Hawke and set up the robbery to get him out of the way. Once Hawke is let out of jail, a deadly showdown begins against Jenkins to see which wolf can outmatch the other.

A leading aircraft designer, Robert Phelps, is abducted by foreign agents to the horror of his mentally challenged son, Bobby. Hawke takes the assignment to find Phelps, obtaining leads form Bobby, whose autism gives him the ability to draw detailed clues from memory. While in the agent's custody, Phelps has a sudden heart-attack and is rendered useless to them. Learning that his latest design plans could be accurately reproduced by Billy, the agents attempt to kidnap him, but Hawke and Airwolf get in their way.

Archangel fails to meet Hawke and Santini at a secret rendezvous point, and the F.I.R.M. learns he has been kidnapped and being tortured by a criminal military hardware dealer named Stoner. They give Hawke 48 hours to find him, or the F.I.R.M. will send in a group of assassins known as Zebra Squad to take him out themselves. Stoner wants information about a device called The Fortune Teller which allows a pilot to fly his aircraft through mental commands. Hawke and his companions now race to save Archangel before the Zebra Squad can be activated.

Hawke is working covertly for the F.I.R.M. in Baja, Mexico to meet defecting Czech laser-scientists Victor Janek (John van Dreelen), and his daughter, Inge. Hawke soon learns that a Soviet bounty-hunter (Albert Paulsen) is hot on the duo's trail with orders to eliminate them. The hunter manages to kill Victor, but Hawke and Inge get away and make a run into the desert. Santini and Caitlin become dismayed when Archangel refuses to help them since Hawke has crossed over from the F.I.R.M.'s strict mission stipulations, and has already been written off. Santini and Caitlin go out in Airwolf to rescue them on their own.

A stockpile of nuclear detonators, (which can detonate any large amount of radioactive material and turn into a deadly bomb), are stolen from a government facility. The mastermind behind the robbery is a former associate of Caitlin who she gave piloting lessons to. The robber decides to smuggle the detonators out of the country by kidnapping Caitlin and forcing her to fly them out in Airwolf, whose stealth technology will provide perfect cover.

An advanced airplane built by Stappleford Industries, the X-400, is to be handed over to the U.S. Air Force who are interested in the craft's performance. The X-400's main test pilot, Roane Carver, knows the plane has potentially deadly flaws and interferes with the final sale knowing her company is selling a dangerous lemon and steals the schematics. Hawke gets involved in helping Roane fight her greedy employer, who goes as far as attempted murder to shut her up and get the plans back.

An advanced laser device called The Mongoose, is stolen from a F.I.R.M. transport while it was on its way to a testing ground. The thief, Karl Stern, is expected to sell the laser on the black market to an East German buyer, but when his partner, Slade, realizes he is being shafted on his cut of the sale money, he threatens to go to the F.I.R.M. for a reward. Stern refuses to give in so Slade carries out his threat and makes the call. Hawke and Santini are ordered to pick up Slade at a Wild West rodeo, but Slade is killed in a mysterious accident. It is now up to them to find and secure the weapon before Stern can smuggle it to Cuba. Tia Carrere makes a brief guest appearance as Kiki Tanabi.

Hawke and Caitlin go to a war-torn South American country, meeting up with a legendary soldier named El Gato, and work to find an imprisoned scientist. Hawke learns that in the year the scientist was held, he developed a robotic tank called the ALV (Automated Land Vehicle) which can be piloted remotely and it is now in the possession of the rebel forces. The group springs the scientist, during which El Gato is killed. Outnumbered, the group hides out in remote village where they meet an American woman who is teaching deaf children. The rebel army sends the ALV into the village to wipe it out and the only hope lies in Airwolf to destroy the tank first.

The families of three of Hawke's Vietnamese friends have been kidnapped and taken to an isolated compound in the California desert. He discovers the kidnappers are survivors of Village #108 which was a target destroyed in an air strike led by Hawke and his three friends after intelligence said it was a Viet Cong hide out. Archangel reveals the original intelligence was wrong and Hawke's men had destroyed an innocent village by mistake. Now the two survivors from that village seek revenge and plan to execute the families in a similar airstrike of the compound where they are being held.

A Vietnam War buddy of Hawke's named John Fargo has died and been laid to rest. Hawke takes Fargo's coffin flag and war medals to a small town to give them to Fargo's only relative, his estranged brother Billy, who did not show at the funeral. Billy however, is nowhere to be found, and a young girl at his residence informs Hawke he does not live there anymore. Hawke tries to locate the local Sheriff but finds Billy running the town which is populated by hippy youths who look upon Billy as their father figure. Hawke's snooping lands him in jail until Santini comes looking for him. Santini springs him out and the two discover the militia trained youths have stolen a nuclear missile called Spaceguard from a nearby aerospace facility and plan to target Washington D.C. in the ultimate anti-war message. Hawke and Santini must press Airwolf to her limits and stop the missile before it hits its target. This is the episode wherein Airwolf pushed its altitude limit from 85,000 to 100,000 feet (upper limit of the atmosphere) and its speed to Mach 2.

Hawke discovers that his brother St. John has a half-Vietnamese son named Le Van, nick-named Half-Pint, who is living with an adopted family. The adopted father Darren McBride tells Hawke that he was part of St. John's strike team where he personally saw his brother go down during a raid on a Viet Cong chemical weapons facility and believes he was killed. Hawke does not believe the story and checks on McBride's war record which is a clean slate. Hawke then takes his nephew for a weekend trip to his cabin and spends time getting to know his new nephew. Hawke gets emotional when he has to return Le Van to the McBride family but later gets involved when he learns Le Van has run away from home. Hawke, McBride and his friend Glen Carson search for him, finding the boy being harassed by street thugs. Hawke gets suspicious when he learns Carson is somehow involved with the thugs and finds out he and McBride are running a mercy operation to retrieve dead American soldiers still being found in Vietnam. The coffin operation turns out to be a cover for Carson's cocaine smuggling business.

Santini gets to spend time with an old oil-drilling friend named Big Cec (Ken Curtis) and his son Lil' Cec (Ken Olandt). Santini is shocked to learn the son was thrown out of college for marijuana possession and their father-son relationship has been falling apart since Cec's wife died. Big Cec hopes things will go better for his son now that he was given a promising job at the oil company, but trouble really begins when it is revealed that Lil' Cec job has been smuggling drugs out of Mexico for the company's shady owners.

The criminal mastermind, John Bradford Horn (John Vernon) (credited as John R. Vernon) returns, and has sent his henchmen to execute a woman, Grace Harrison, and her boyfriend out in the desert. Grace is shot but manages to get away, crawling into a cave which happens to be the hiding spot of Airwolf. Hawke and Santini rush out in response to a security alarm and find Grace unconscious and near death. The two take her to a hospital run by the F.I.R.M. She is treated, and Archangel decides to let her go, but puts a tail on her. Grace is captured again by Horn but she reveals the location of Airwolf is exchange for her life.

Tess Dixon (Anne Lockhart), the wife of the infamous crimelord Cullen Dixon (Clu Gulager), and an old flame of Hawke's, escapes her husband's bodyguards and Archangel contacts Hawke to deliver her to a safehouse. She plans to testify against her husband's involvement in a plot to assassinate several top-ranking Washington officials, but Hawke's previous involvement with Tess makes it difficult for him. He must set his feelings aside once Tess comes under attack by Cullen's thugs who want to make sure Tess does not live to testify. G. Gordon Liddy guest stars as Barkley Kase.

Hawke is visiting a former Vietnam War pal named Greg Stewart and finds him in the midst of a child custody battle between him and his ex-wife, Rainey. The battle becomes more complicated when Greg's rich mother Martha, gets involved and refuses to release the child from her custody at her ranch. Rainey hides the child in Santini's car, and he and Hawke quickly find themselves accused of kidnapping. The baby was played by twins Max and John Kenworthy.

Caitlin is attending a Kappa Lambda Chi fraternity homecoming on the Queen Mary luxury liner. Unbeknown to her, one of her friends, Barbara Scarelli, the daughter of a rich businessman, is about to be kidnapped in an extortion attempt set up by her shady boyfriend Robert (Bryan Cranston). The kidnap attempt backfires when one of the kidnappers kills one of Barbara's bodyguards and sets off alarms. In a panic, the three thugs take the whole gathering hostage and make demands for a helicopter to the SWAT team that stands by. The F.I.R.M. sends in Airwolf to trap and take the criminals out.

An old Vietnam War buddy invites Hawke to join his mercenary squad, but Hawke turns down the offer. The friend then invites Hawke to an art showing, but upon getting there, he finds himself betrayed and set up for assassination as gunmen storm in and shoot up the place. Hawke is shot, but manages to escape. He is helped by a passer-by who gets him to the hospital under an assumed name. Hawke tries to contact Archangel for help, but Zeus intervenes and believes Hawke has been compromised and calls in the Zebra Squad to finish him off. Hawke now finds himself running from assassins on both fronts.

Hawke helps a friend get her wrongly convicted son Terry, out of a brutal Mexican prison. Hawke goes to get a layout of the prison and poses as Terry's uncle to get close to him. The rescue attempt fails when Terry refuses to leave a fellow inmate behind and Hawke's cover is blown. He finds himself thrown into the same prison until Santini and Caitlin mount a rescue.

During a night-time fishing trip, Hawke spots a helicopter fly down and dump a body into the lake. He fishes the body out the river finding it to be a young girl who is barely alive and takes her to a hospital. The girl recovers but has lost all memory of who she is or what happened to her. Uncovering her identity, Hawke learns that she is a drug addicted prostitute but has no idea why someone wants her dead. When the thugs learn she is still alive, they come to finish the job and to kill the only witness, Hawke.

Hawke takes a group of wheelchair-bound vets on an outdoor trip into the mountains, but the group runs across a deranged woodsman known as The Cat who has been terrorizing and murdering anyone who trespasses on his mountain. Santini and Caitlin learn Hawke and the men are in trouble and mount a rescue attempt, racing against time to find the team first before the killer does.

Hawke's nephew Half-Pint shows up at Santini Air begging for help to find his stepmother, Minh Van McBride, who has been missing for weeks. With Archangel's help, Hawke and Santini track Minh Van's last whereabouts to a swanky nightclub. They learn she has been abducted by Nick Kincaid, a white slaver who kidnaps foreign women and sells them as sex-slaves. Hawke also learns that Kincaid is a drug trafficker, currently looking for a reputable pilot to smuggle shipments for him. Hawke poses as an interested pilot to get inside Kincaid's operation and locate Minh Van.

Hawke and Santini's niece Jo, are testing a helicopter control device, and after landing, they find an audio tape that someone secretly placed into the helicopter. The tape reveals evidence that Hawke's lost brother St. John is still alive and being held prisoner somewhere in South East Asia by a rebel mercenary group. Hawke takes the tape to the F.I.R.M. where he finds Archangel has been suddenly reassigned to the Middle-East and replaced by Jason Locke. Locke determines the tape proves nothing and refuses to get involved. Later, Hawke receives a mysterious package containing St. John's ring, further proof that his brother may still be alive and trying to send a message. Suddenly, Santini is killed when the helicopter he was about to fly explodes. The blast seriously injures Hawke and he slips into unconsciousness at the hospital. Meanwhile, Locke assigns pilot Major Michael Rivers to find Airwolf and return it to the F.I.R.M. (which has been renamed The Company). Jo Santini discovers what is going on and intercepts Rivers convincing him to help her find St. John. Rivers goes against orders and flies Airwolf to Asia to rescue St. John and bring him back home. St. John is found alive and returns to the United States just in time to be with Hawke; whose fate is left unknown.

Jo is in Istanbul awaiting her contact who has smuggled top secret papers out of Bulgaria. The papers contain the locations of Soviet missile installations and are brought to a Stockholm peace conference as evidence that the Soviets are violating treaty stipulations. Her contact fails to show so she goes looking for him and finds him shot. Before he dies he reveals his hiding place for the papers and Jo retrieves them. She gets on her plane for Stockholm but the flight is forced down by Bulgarian fighter jets. Jo is arrested as a spy and taken to a prison. Now St. John and Rivers must rescue her in time for the conference.

Jo is testing a new navigation computer in her Jet Ranger helicopter, as St. John follows in his plane. Suddenly, both aircraft are fired upon by a laser weapon. Jo crashes in the wilderness but St. John manages to make an emergency landing at a nearby airport. He is injured and taken to the small town of San Maria's hospital, but is furious that no one is looking for Jo's downed helicopter. Once he recovers his strength, he forces a local deputy to go looking for Jo but they can find no trace of the helicopter. The plot thickens as the whole town seems to be under the control of the nearby company, Lundhal Industries. Once the company is revealed to be a secret weapons testing facility, and Jo has stumbled on their operation, St. John fetches Airwolf to conduct a rescue, but soon Airwolf becomes the laser's next target.

St. John and Rivers go to the remote town of Devil's Peak to meet a former F.I.R.M. employee and check on her story of strange sounds and lights coming from a nearby Indian burial ground. Investigating, the two stumble upon a secret base where an advanced military helicopter called the Scorpion is being tested and ready to be handed over to the KGB.

The Company sends the Airwolf crew to tail a KGB agent who has stolen computer boards belonging to a new government spy satellite. The team must recover the boards before they are handed off to his Soviet comrades. They manage to kill the agent and secure one of the boards but the other has already been handed off to a second operative. The crew must get it back before the second agent before he can escape the country.

Jo catches a teenage boy hiding at the Santini Air hangar who has run away from a nearby wilderness youth camp. The boy seems afraid of being returned to his abusive grandfather, but Jo and Rivers bring him back to the camp and decide to help make sure nothing happens to the boy. The boy's hostile grandfather shows up threatening to kill everyone with a rifle and a bomb unless his grandson his handed over. In a scuffle, the man kidnaps Jo and takes her to a nearby dam. St. John arrives to help in Airwolf and he and Rivers try to get Jo back before the madman carries out his threat to kill her if his grandson is not returned.

Airwolf is on a mission to guard a train carrying a deadly nerve gas on its way for disposal, but a rebel mercenary group sets up a trap ahead of the train at a mountain tunnel. The train enters the tunnel and the Airwolf's crew temporarily lose sight of it until it re-emerges at the other end. Soon, they realize they have been duped and are following a decoy train that was hidden in the tunnel while the real one has been stopped and diverted elsewhere. The mercenaries take the gas canisters off the train and hand them over to their fanatical leader who has his own dubious plans for the deadly chemical. The situation intensifies when Locke and a Russian commander who were on the train to supervise the disposal, are captured and held as hostages.

Airwolf is supporting a group of military helicopters who are returning a kidnapped U.S. Ambassador who has just been set free by friendly ground forces. The mission is being led by Colonel Combs, a man who St. John once served under and is not on good terms with. During the flight home, one of the helicopters piloted by an Army General's son, is shot down and crashes. Now Colonel Combs is being held responsible for the pilot's death. St. John is stunned when Combs chooses his former enemy, St. John, to help in his defence at the court martial.

On a covert surveillance mission, Airwolf's scanners detect a large plume of radioactive gas being vented from the nuclear power plant at Stavograd, Russia. A new component at the power plant has failed and the engineers cannot stop the dangerous gas leak which is threatening the lives of millions. Disobeying Company orders to not get involved, St. John offers the Russians assistance but they refuse the help and warn not to enter their airspace. St. John pilots Airwolf into Soviet airspace anyway and is quickly fired upon. Although Airwolf avoids their missile strike, she is eventually surrounded by Migs and forced to land where the crew are captured. Learning Airwolf has been compromised, The Company simply writes them off and denies involvement.

The story continues as the Airwolf crew are being held as spies and The Lady is in the hands of the enemy. Locke is furious about his employer's decision to abandon them and decides to enter Russia on his own under a bogus passport, posing as an international athlete. Arriving at Stavograd, Locke attempt to get the crew out of lock up, but his cover is blown and he finds himself in jail with them. Once St. John learns of the commanding officer, General Kirov's plan to fire a missile into the Stavograd reactor to seal the leak, St. John indicates that only Airwolf's laser can fire so accurately. When one of Kirov's fighters tries the manoeuvre and fails, Kirov turns to St. John's plan, but St. John negotiates to do the job only if they release his companions. Kirov reluctantly agrees, and as promised, St. John flies Airwolf to the reactor to seal the leak.

The Airwolf crew go to France to protect Anna LeBlanc, the star of a mime troupe and whose father is dedicated to fighting terrorism. The Company believes she may be the target of a retaliation after her father receives a threat letter. St. John and Locke try to uncover who is plotting her demise, while Jo and Rivers stay close to the girl, but she does not believe her life is in danger once the agents reveal who they are.

St. John investigates the murder of a Japanese businessman who was injected with a deadly experimental virus. St. John learns that if the virus were released it could kill millions of people. Now he must uncover the madman behind its creation and avert his deadly attack.

Once again the Company tries to take possession of Airwolf after Rivers and Locke ignore orders not to proceed into Soviet airspace and retrieve information from a double agent. On their return home, The Company fires Locke, along with the rest of the Airwolf crew and they demand The Lady be handed over immediately.

Jo is kidnapped by a Japanese businessman and forced to fly him to a nuclear power plant. St. John discovers that the man was a Japanese pilot, shot down in World War II by his father, and he seeks revenge.

St. John is testing a new military aircraft called the Viper, but something goes wrong with the plane and bails out before it crashes. After it is revealed that the company who engineered the plane has made a lemon and just wants a quick military sale, St. John tries to expose their scheme but quickly finds himself on the run after the company sends hit men after him.

Anti-nuclear protestors seize nuclear missiles in both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. The group threatens to detonate them unless both countries destroy their nuclear stockpiles. At the same time Airwolf is off the shore of a Scottish island, while Mike infiltrates the group's headquarters to get a code that can stop the plan. Mike gets caught and the protest group's leader is killed by his partner. The partner drugs Mike to get him to give up Airwolf's location. Hawke frees Mike before he talks.

Mike's near twin, an East German pilot, will appear at a European air show and Mike has to replace him, while he is debriefed. Things get complicated, with a schedule change, and Mike has to rush his mission training. At the air show the Airwolf team find that the East Germans are on to the agent and have imprisoned his wife until he completes his part in the air show.

In a war-torn South American country, Airwolf must rescue Hawke's friend, Jack, from a local General. Hawke and Mike break in, while Locke uses Airwolf to provide cover. Unfortunately, Jack is already dead, leaving the mystery of where some smuggled money might have gone unsolved.

An Afghan rebel wants military weapons and Jo Santini. Meanwhile Hawke and Jo are testing Airwolf when Jo gets a message. A former boyfriend wants to see her, and asks her to visit him in Afghanistan. She does go, unknowingly walking into a trap.

Locke falls for a beautiful woman, who works for the Ridgemont Institute. The Institute is run by a former employee of the F.I.R.M. who was a mind control expert. When Kate shows Locke her workplace, he is captured and an implant is used to gain control of him. He is then sent home, unaware of the control in an attempt to get Airwolf.

Hawke and Mike find out via television that a madman (Dick Van Dyke) wants all diseased people quarantined so they can no longer contaminate the world. Airwolf is sent to investigate. The madman finds out about Airwolf and threatens to poison the Pacific if it is used against him.

In Laos, Mike tries to capture one of the world's largest opium suppliers. After he fails, Hawke, Jo, and Mike are sent on separate missions to stop portions of the drug lords operation.

Hawke and Mike investigate stolen plutonium, while Jo's dad lets her know that he is dying. The guys find out that an employee was blackmailed into the theft by neo-Nazis who want a nuclear weapon.

Hawke ends up helping an old friend, who owns an aircraft charter service, at the friend's wife request. They find him shot dead. They go after the man responsible, who wants the land for his lumber scheme.