GTA Wiki
Register
Advertisement
GTA Wiki
19,723
pages
Site-logo
This article needs image of Vice City Stories version rear quarter.
You can help by adding some relevant images or discussing changes on the talk page.
Remember to follow our Media Policy in naming and licensing before adding images.

The Skimmer is a propeller seaplane featured in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories.

Design[]

3D Universe[]

In all of its appearances, the Skimmer is simply a Dodo (based on the Cessna 152) with a pair of large pontoons on the bottom in place of landing gears; the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas rendition further includes reinforcement on the connection between the pontoons and the fuselage, as well as harnesses between the pontoons and fuselage and the tailfin. While the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories renditions have a two-bladed propeller, the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas redition comes with a four-bladed propeller.

While able to land on water, the Skimmer in GTA Vice City does not feature any functional doors, resulting in the player getting warped inside the plane when entering. If the player exits the plane, however, they are immediately spawned on top of the wing of the plane. This problem was rectified in GTA San Andreas, in which the door of the plane can be opened, and the player can enter and exit through the doors, a feature only possible with Carl Johnson's ability to swim, which Tommy Vercetti does not have. Similarly, in GTA Vice City Stories, if the player enters the Skimmer, they will be warped.

Unlike the Dodo, the Skimmer in GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas may come in a variety of two-tone body colors (as opposed to the same red-and-white color scheme of the Dodo). The Skimmer in GTA Vice City Stories simply comes with an all-grey body color.

Version History Gallery[]

Performance[]

3D Universe[]

Aside from its beneficial amphibious nature, the performance of the Skimmer in the air is very much similar to the Dodo in that they both have the same sluggish acceleration and poor top speed, owing to a low-power engine. However, the Skimmer has a tendency of stalling easier. In GTA Vice City, the Skimmer can reach high speeds by moving the plane up and down in an undulating motion, but this takes a while to achieve and is not necessarily useful given the relatively small size of Vice City. This makes the plane only suitable for steady, slow air travel. In GTA San Andreas, the Skimmer uses a four-bladed propeller instead of the two-bladed version that the Dodo has. This means the engine may have higher performance, but is offset by the increased weight of the pontoons of the Skimmer.

3D Universe Overview[]


Aircraft Statistics - 3D Universe
Take-Off Speed
(0-60 knots in Seconds)
Top Speed
(mph / kmh / knots)
Engine Type Engine Location Mass
(kg / lbs)
Handling.dat
N/A 124 / 200 / 108 Petrol N/A 5000 / 11023
Observed
N/A N/A Single piston engine;
*Two-bladed propeller (GTA Vice City & GTA Vice City Stories)
*Four-bladed propeller (GTA San Andreas)
Front Cannot be observed

Prominent Appearances in Missions[]

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City[]

  • Dildo Dodo - Tommy uses a Skimmer to spread leaflets around the city.

Locations[]

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City[]

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas[]

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories[]

Radio Stations[]

The Skimmer has the following default radio station/s:

Trivia[]

General[]

  • The name "Skimmer" comes from a family of tropical birds with the same name. Similarly, the term "skimming" can refer to dragging something quickly across the surface of water.
  • In the game files of GTA Vice City and GTA Vice City Stories, the Skimmer is defined as a boat instead of a plane, possibly because of its ability to float on water. This was also the case with the Dodo in GTA III, where it was defined as a car. In GTA San Andreas, however, it is defined as a plane.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City & Vice City Stories[]

  • If a Skimmer is flown into a Pay 'n' Spray, nothing will happen, probably because it is a "boat" modified to fly, unlike a Helicopter which will be resprayed and also come out with generic wheels.
  • Since the plane has no functional doors, if the player enters one while with a wanted level, the cops will not be able to open the door and bust the player on the inside. The cops will simply run against the pontoons of the Skimmer without doing anything else.
  • If the player tries to enter a blown-up Skimmer in both games, they are instantly killed. This is done by standing on top of the Skimmer and pressing the enter button. The protagonist collapses to the ground and the usual wasted screen sequence is shown.
  • According to the in-game files in GTA Vice City, the main colors of the Skimmer are 1 & 3 (white & red), the same colors as the Dodo.
  • The name of the Skimmer in the files of GTA Vice City is "SEAPLANE" instead of Skimmer; this is probably the beta name. This trait was carried over to GTA San Andreas.
  • In GTA Vice City, the Skimmer can actually fly backwards by diving the plane completely and pitching it at 90 degrees and then pressing the brake button. The plane should fly backwards afterwards.
  • If the Skimmer is spawned via a cheat (can be achieved by replacing its default.ide number with a vehicle spawnable by cheat, i.e. Romero's Hearse) it will not crash the game, unlike with other boats. Instead, the Skimmer will be spawned in front of the player with no propeller, no wing or tail flaps, and if the player gets on its pontoon and tries to enter it, an invisible door will be opened and the game will crash.
  • In the game files, the Skimmer is assigned with four color schemes, but they are all identical, so the Skimmer permanently spawns with a single color scheme. This characteristic is shared with the Jetski.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas[]

  • The Skimmer is the only airplane in the whole game that will not explode if it collides head-on with any solid object. This could be because of its pontoons, which have a solid area that may take up space past the front end of the airplane.
  • The propellers of the Skimmer suffer from a visual glitch. When they are not rotating, they look exactly like the propellers of a Dodo. However, when they start to rotate and pick up speed, they appear wider and with a more rigid, triangular shape, just like the Skimmer from GTA Vice City. This is because the texture files of the plane have been handed down from GTA Vice City. This visual glitch is only found on the PS2 version of the game.
  • If the player lands the Skimmer upside down in the water, the airplane will sink a few feet, then turn right-side up very quickly, and slowly float to the surface, where it will be usable again.
  • If the player is flying on the water, and then tilts the plane so that only one pontoon is touching the water, mist will still be ejected from both pontoons, even from the one that is not touching the water.
  • The Skimmer may run very slowly on the water resulting in inability to take off. This problem appears frequently if the player is using modern hardware. The easiest way to solve it is to turn on the frame limiter in the settings of the game.

Grand Theft Auto V[]

  • UnknownPlane-GTAV-Screenshot

    A Beta Seaplane in GTA V, possibly a Skimmer.

    A seaplane was seen in a trailer of Grand Theft Auto V, which implies that a seaplane, possibly named Skimmer, was planned to appear in the game, although it did not make it to the final version. In the PS4/Xbox One/PC edition of the game, a seaplane now named the Dodo appears.

See Also[]

Navigation[]

Navigation
[ ve ]Vehicles
ListsAll vehicles | Category | by brand | by type | by style | by property | Beta vehicles | Special Vehicles | Uncontrollable vehicles | Unseen vehicles
Vehicles inGTA VI | GTA Online | GTA V | GTA Chinatown Wars | GTA IV (The Lost and Damned | The Ballad of Gay Tony) | GTA Vice City Stories | GTA Liberty City Stories | GTA Advance | GTA San Andreas | GTA Vice City | GTA III | GTA 2 | GTA London 1961 | GTA London 1969 | GTA 1
CategoriesGTA VI | GTA Online | GTA V | GTA Chinatown Wars | GTA IV (The Lost and Damned | The Ballad of Gay Tony) | GTA Vice City Stories | GTA Liberty City Stories | GTA Advance | GTA San Andreas | GTA Vice City | GTA III | GTA 2 | GTA London 1961 | GTA London 1969 | GTA 1 | Beta
Related topicsBail Out | Cheats | Carjacking | Custom Vehicle License Plates | Drive-By Shooting | Driving | Engines | Garages | Interior Dashboards | Involuntary Ejection | Horns | Hydraulics | Mod Garages | Spray Shop | Vehicle Brands | Vehicle Damage | Vehicle Features | Vehicle Missions | Vehicle Mounted Weapons
[ ve ]Vehicles in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
SportsBanshee | Blista Compact | Cheetah | Comet | Deluxo | Infernus | Stinger
4WD and utilityBF Injection | Bobcat | Landstalker | Mesa Grande | Patriot | Rancher | Sandking | Walton
Four-door carsAdmiral | Glendale (Bloodring Banger) | Greenwood | Oceanic (Bloodring Banger) | Perennial | Regina | Sentinel (XS) | Stretch | Washington
Two-door carsEsperanto | Hermes (Cuban) | Idaho | Manana | Phoenix | Sabre (Turbo) | Stallion | Virgo | Voodoo
VansBurrito (Gang) | Moonbeam | Pony (Top Fun) | Rumpo | Securicar
Industrial trucksBenson | Boxville (Mr Whoopee) | Flatbed | Mule (Spand Express) | Linerunner | Packer | Trashmaster | Yankee
Public serviceBus | Cabbie (Kaufman | Zebra) | Coach | Taxi
Government and emergencyAmbulance | Barracks OL | Enforcer | FBI Rancher | FBI Washington | Fire Truck | Police | Rhino | VCPD Cheetah
Aircraft
ControllableHunter | Maverick (Police | VCN) | Sparrow (Sea) | Skimmer
UncontrollableDeadDodo | Police Maverick (NPC) | Static Planes (Airtrain | Learjet) | The Gash Blimp
MotorcyclesAngel | Faggio (Pizza Boy) | Freeway | PCJ-600 | Sanchez
BoatsCoast Guard | Cuban Jetmax | Dinghy | Marquis | Predator | Reefer | Rio | Speeder | Squalo | Tropic
Remote controlled (RC)RC Bandit | RC Baron | RC Goblin | RC Raider
MiscellaneousBaggage Handler | Caddy | Hotring Racer (Hotrina | Hotrinb) | Love Fist | Romero's Hearse
BetaAmbassador | Coastguard Maverick | Cougar | Kuruma | TOYZ
Category:Vehicles in GTA Vice City | Vehicles by type | Special Vehicles in GTA Vice City | Beta Vehicles
[ ve ]Vehicles in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Sports, Muscle, Tuner,
and Super cars
Banshee | Buffalo | Bullet | Cheetah | Comet | Elegy | Euros | Flash | Hotknife | Hotring Racer (Hotrina | Hotrinb) | Infernus | Jester | Phoenix | Sabre | Stratum | Sultan | Super GT | Turismo | Uranus | ZR-350
SUVs and UtilityBobcat | Huntley | Landstalker | Mesa | Picador | Rancher (Lure) | Sadler (Beater) | Walton | Yosemite
Four-door carsAdmiral | Elegant | Emperor | Glendale (Beater | Bloodring Banger) | Greenwood | Intruder | Merit | Nebula | Oceanic | Perennial | Premier | Primo | Regina | Sentinel | Solair | Stafford | Stretch | Sunrise | Vincent | Washington | Willard
Two-door carsAlpha | Blista Compact | Bravura | Buccaneer | Cadrona | Clover | Club | Esperanto | Feltzer | Fortune | Hermes | Hustler | Majestic | Manana | Previon | Stallion | Tampa | Virgo | Windsor
VansBurrito | Camper | Hotdog | Moonbeam | Newsvan | Pony ( Berkley's RC Van) | Rumpo | Securicar
Industrial trucksBenson | Boxville (BoxBurg | Mr Whoopee) | Cement Truck | DFT-30 | Dozer | Dumper | Flatbed | Linerunner | Mule | Packer | Roadtrain | Tanker | Yankee
LowridersBlade | Broadway | Remington | Savanna | Slamvan | Tahoma | Tornado | Voodoo
Public serviceBaggage | Bus | Cabbie | Coach | Forklift | Sweeper | Taxi | Tow Truck | Trashmaster | Tug | Utility Van
RailwayBrown Streak (Coach) | Freight (Flat) | Tram
Government and emergencyAmbulance | Barracks | Enforcer | FBI Rancher | Fire Truck (Ladder) | Patriot | Police (SFPD | LVPD) | Ranger | Rhino | S.W.A.T.
Offroad vehiclesBandito | BF Injection | Dune | Monster (Monstera | Monsterb) | Quad | Sandking
Fixed-wing aircraftAndromada | AT-400 | Beagle | Cropduster | Dodo | Hydra | Nevada | Rustler | Shamal | Skimmer | Stuntplane
HelicoptersCargobob | Hunter | Leviathan | Maverick (News Chopper | Police) | Raindance | Sparrow (Sea)
Bicycles and motorcyclesBike | BF-400 | BMX | Faggio (Pizzaboy) | FCR-900 | Freeway | HPV-1000 | Mountain Bike | NRG-500 | PCJ-600 | Sanchez | Wayfarer
WatercraftCoastguard | Dinghy | Jetmax | Launch | Marquis | Predator | Reefer | Speeder | Squalo | Tropic | Vortex
Remote controlled (RC)RC Bandit | RC Baron | RC Goblin | RC Raider | RC Tiger
TrailersArticulated Trailer (Hopper | Short) | Baggage Box (Open) | Farm Trailer | Petrol Truck | Tug Stairs
CountrysideCombine Harvester | Journey | Mower | Tractor
MiscellaneousCaddy | Jetpack | Kart | Parachute | Romero
Beta vehiclesAirtrain | Coastguard Maverick | FBI Truck | Float | Freight Box | RC Cam | Rio | Roller | Skateboard | Utility Trailer
Category:Vehicles in GTA San Andreas | Vehicle stats in GTA San Andreas | Vehicles in GTA San Andreas | Vehicles by type | Special Vehicles | Beta vehicles
[ ve ]Vehicles in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
Sports and muscle carsBanshee | Cheetah | Comet | Deluxo | Infernus | Phoenix | Polaris V8 | Sabre (Cholo | Turbo) | Stinger
Four-door carsAdmiral | Glendale | Greenwood | Oceanic | Perennial | Regina | Sentinel | Sentinel XS | Stretch | Washington
Two-door carsBlista Compact | Esperanto | Hermes (Cuban) | Idaho | Manana | Stallion | Virgo | Voodoo
SUVs, trucks and vansBenson | Bobcat | Boxville (Mr Whoopee) | Burrito | Flatbed | Gang Rancher | Landstalker | Linerunner | Mesa Grande | Moonbeam | Mule | Patriot | Pony | Rumpo | Sandking | Walton | Yankee
Public serviceCabbie | Coach | Securicar | Taxi | Trashmaster
Government and emergencyAmbulance | Barracks OL (Ammo Truck) | Enforcer | FBI Rancher | FBI Washington | Fire Truck | Rhino | VCPD Cheetah | VCPD Cruiser | VCPD WinterGreen
Fixed-wing aircraftBiplane | Skimmer
HelicoptersAir Ambulance | Armadillo | Hunter | Little Willie | Maverick | Sea Sparrow | Sparrow | VCN Maverick | VCPD Maverick
Bicycles and MotorcyclesBiker Angel | BMX | Faggio | Freeway | PCJ-600 | Quad | Sanchez | Streetfighter | Ventoso | WinterGreen
WatercraftBovver'64 | Coast Guard | Dinghy | Jetmax | Jetski | Marquis | Predator | Reefer | Rio | Speeder | Squallo | Tropic | Violator | Yola
MiscellaneousBaggage Handler | BF Injection | Bulldozer | Caddy | Domestobot | Forklift | Splitz-6 ATV
UncontrollableStatic Planes (Airtrain | Learjet) | VCPD Maverick (NPC)
BetaAmbassador | Coastguard Maverick | Top Fun | Unnamed Motorcycle
Category:Vehicles in GTA Vice City Stories | Vehicles by type | Special Vehicles in GTA Vice City Stories | Beta Vehicles
Advertisement