RC Baron

The RC Baron is a miniature remote controlled airplane that appears in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

3D Universe
The RC Baron is designed as a model bi-plane with a red body; this design trait, coupled with its name, suggests the plane is inspired by Manfred von Richthofen, also known as the Red Baron, a German ace pilot who took out 80 enemy planes by himself during World War I.

In its first appearance in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the RC Baron originally featured landing gear wheels derived from sports cars in the game. In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, however, the landing gear was modified to fit the plane' scale, which are miniature wheels also used on other land-based RC vehicles. The Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas rendition also comes with a functional machine gun and blinking lights on the wing, similar to an actual plane in the game.

3D Universe
In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, due to its nature as an RC vehicle, the handling is sensitive on land, where the vehicle will lose control easily when steering it on a side. After taking off, however, the plane becomes more controllable and can reach moderate speeds while airborne. Its low mass also means that even with the slightest hit will result in the plane falling to the ground.

The Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas rendition suffered from downgraded performance, but makes up for being more controllable and easier to recover if the plane crashes on an obstacle. The plane seems to retain the same top speed. According to the handling.cfg, the RC Baron is lighter than the Vice City rendition, as well as the "drivetrain" set to front-wheel drive, opposed to the previous iteration's all wheel drive. The fact that its engine is "Petrol" instead of "Electric" suggests that it is powered by gasoline or methanol ("nitro" in RC terminology).

Prominent Appearances in Missions
The RC Baron has been adopted for use in several missions in both of its appearances. In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas the player can get the RC Baron during Air Raid.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

 * The Baron attains the ability to drop bombs during "Bombs Away!", and is integral to the RC Baron Race side quest from the top the North Point Mall's multistory parking lot; in both cases, the player must enter a Top Fun van in order to fly the planes. The player can obtain and even fly the RC Baron from the latter.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

 * The Baron is used in two missions for Zero: "Air Raid", where it is used against Zero, and "Supply Lines...", where CJ uses it in order to help Zero to destroy Berkley's delivery service. The Baron is also used in an optional "Beefy Baron" side-mission for the same purpose as "Supply Lines...". The Baron has a self destruct capability along with a fuel meter in the latter two missions.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

 * Rarely, while driving on streets of Vice City, the RC Baron spawns, and while the player controls the vehicle, they are controlling the plane too (iOS confirmed).
 * It is possible to obtain this RC Baron by either duplicating the mission and destroying one of the RC Barons in water, which will let you fly it, or by using a clothes replay glitch.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

 * If the player flies the RC Baron into any body of water, the vehicle will instantly enter the Blue Hell. This is possibly due to the float value of the RC Baron being set to a negative number within the game's code.
 * The player can obtain the RC Baron during Air Raid! by starting the mission with OM0, and using a Dozer to push it into a garage.

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