How To Create An Atmosphere Re Entry Type Effect

Hello,


I am currently doing a Flash (CS5) animation for university (never done one before), it's a sci fi type thing. One shot, it will be first person inside the cockpit of a spaceship and he will be going down to the planet. How could I create the fire effect for this kind of thing. I have seen the normal fire tutorials but I can't see how you could get a first person view of it, and bending around the nose of the ship etc, plus the style of my animation is in the middle of realism and less serious, more arty I guess is a better description.

I suppose its not really fire when you enter the atmosphere, just heat and pressure.

Thank you very much for your time and thank you in advance for any reply