The Aeroplane, also known as the Air Train, is an uncontrollable passenger airplane appearing in Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. The uncontrollable vehicle is left unused in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Design[]
The vehicle is named after the European aerospace corporation Airbus SE, and certain details of the vehicle such as the windshield are reminiscent of those on older Airbus models. It also appears to take inspiration from the Boeing 727, with adjustments made to its design such as shorter outboard engines and differently designed wing ailerons.
The original design in Grand Theft Auto III is depicted as a DMAir plane, which is itself a reference to DMA Design, Rockstar North's former name. The logo is replaced with the Air Rockstar company logo in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. On the landing gear doors is "T2", which is a reference to Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar Games's parent company.
Both the vehicle and static versions have been redesigned in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, now having less and bigger windows, a hump and raised cockpit reminiscent of the Boeing 747 and a more cartoonish look overall. In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, the appearance of the actual vehicle has been reverted to its original design, while its static variant appears as a Plummet Airlines passenger airplane with an extra floor for its cockpit, also similar to a Boeing 747.
The Aeroplane has been left unused in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas due to the previous path-controlled air traffic system being replaced with a limited AI-controlled air traffic system using normal vehicles with normal vehicle physics. Only its textureless model, handling data and in-game text string are left in the game files, revealing that the vehicle has been renamed to "Air Train" to keep consistency with its data name before being ultimately cut.
In The Definitive Edition, the Airtrains found at Escobar International Airport feature various colored paint jobs, without liveries. The colors include bright red, yellow, cyan and black. The standard 'Rockstar' branded variant remains white.
In Grand Theft Auto Advance, the vehicle is absent; however, static planes intended to represent the stationary planes from Grand Theft Auto III can be found in Francis International Airport.
Effects[]
The vehicle uses colored coronastar effects to simulate the airplane's navigation lights. As the Aeroplane takes off and reaches the game's height limit, it uses a white line effect to simulate far away contrails, only intended to be seen from afar.
Both effects have been kept in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, except for the vehicle model, to depict far away planes intended to be seen from the ground. However, the height limit update for the player-controlled aircrafts unintentionally creates a flaw in which the player is able to reach the invisible airplanes, which are depicted as blinking coronastar lights leaving a contrail line behind them.
Similarly to other coronastar lights in the game (i.e. Snapshot indicators), the airplane nav lights are not visible during daytime, leaving only the contrails visible.
Performance[]
The Aeroplane's performance cannot be observed by the player as, even if the vehicle is obtained via exploits, the vehicle is limited to a scripted path in all of its appearances and its course cannot be changed through normal vehicle controls. If an Aeroplane is generated (only possible through modifications), the game will crash as the vehicle relies on a scripted path.
Unlike other path-controlled aircraft (such as the "dead" Dodo and Helicopter), the vehicle ignores any projectile impact and cannot be destroyed with missiles fired from Rocket Launchers or vehicle-mounted missiles.
Also similarly to the aforementioned vehicles, the Aeroplane is not solid, meaning the player can go through it without taking any damage. Exclusive to the handheld titles (Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories), the vehicle has collision, however in GTA Liberty City Stories, touching the plane will instantly kill the player, and if the player was in a vehicle, the vehicle will instantly explode. In GTA Vice City Stories, touching the plane's wheels will gradually injure the player and cause ordinary damage to their vehicle. The vehicle also allows the player to stand on top of it while it takes off before being automatically ejected upon reaching the game's height limit.
Prominent Appearances in Gameplay[]
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City[]
- In The Beginning... — An Aeroplane lands on Escobar International Airport as Tommy Vercetti is seen leaving the airport terminal with Harry and Lee.
Specifications[]
Model[]
| Model name | Texture name | Handling name | Text label name | In-game name | Swankness | Flags | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GTA III | airtrain
|
airtrain
|
AIRTRAIN
|
AEROPL
|
Aeroplane | N/A | |
| GTA Vice City | airtrain
|
airtrain
|
AIRTRAIN
|
AEROPL
|
Aeroplane | N/A | |
| GTA San Andreas | airtrain
|
airtrain
|
AIRTRAIN
|
AEROPL
|
Air Train | N/A | |
| GTA Liberty City Stories | airtrain
|
airtrain
|
AIRTRAIN
|
AEROPL
|
Aeroplane | N/A | |
| GTA Vice City Stories | airtrain
|
airtrain
|
AIRTRAIN
|
AEROPL
|
Aeroplane | N/A |
Gallery[]
A bright red Aeroplane, as seen in The Definitive Edition. (Black variant) (Cyan variant) (Yellow variant)
Aeroplane contrails during the daytime, as seen from Mount Chiliad.
Aeroplane contrails seen from Francis International Airport.
Static Variants[]
Grand Theft Auto III[]
A static Aeroplane. (Rear quarter view)
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City[]
A static Aeroplane. (Rear quarter view)
Grand Theft Auto Advance[]
A static Aeroplane. (Rear quarter view)
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories[]
A static Aeroplane. (Rear quarter view)
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories[]
A static Plummet Airlines Aeroplane. (Rear quarter view)
Oversights[]
Flight Path Corrruption[]
In both the original PC versions of Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, when loading a custom skin that has the letter e as the 21st character of its filename, it will trigger a bug that will corrupt the aircraft path data, causing them to fly in or below the ground. This is because the game somehow reads the character as an exponential function, thus causing errors in the CPlane function, which handles the aircraft's flight path.
Map Limit Crash[]
Similarly to any other path-controlled vehicle in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, approaching the Aeroplane as it crosses the map's limit results in a crash (Unhandled exception c0000005 at random addresses). This can only be observed by normal means with the Aeroplane and the uncontrollable VCPD Helicopter.
Entering the Aeroplane[]
The flying version of the plane can be accessed in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories through a glitch – if the player gets on the wing while the plane taxis from one runway to the other, and presses the triangle button near the intersection point between the back of the wing and the fuselage, they will be transported inside of the airplane.
The player doesn't have any control of the vehicle itself and can only change the radio stations while it flies on its predefined route. The player can only exit the Aeroplane when its back wheels are touching the ground but not the front one, which is when it takes off and lands.
Beta Content[]
Grand Theft Auto III[]
The Aeroplane originally behaved like the "dead" Dodo, allowing the player to destroy it using a Rocket Launcher. The ability to destroy large planes was disabled in the final release, likely due to the recent September 11 attacks. Footage of an Airtrain exploding with the impact of a Rocket Launcher projectile recorded prior to this change can be seen in the German TV spot trailer.
The destructible Aeroplane in the German TV spot trailer.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas[]
Both the Air Train vehicle model and static prop model (including LOD) can be found in the game files, unused in-game. Leftover early map renders found in the textures for the Race Tournament menu UI reveals that the static props were once placed in the airports. The static prop includes a fake shadow repurposed from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, but heavily compressed in-game.
The leftover Air Train vehicle model (not an object). (Rear quarter view)
