The Sparrow is a three- and seven-bladed utility helicopter appearing in Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, and returning to Grand Theft Auto Online as part of The Cayo Perico Heist.
The helicopter returns from the 3D Universe where it also assumed the design of a light utility helicopter.
Influence[]
The Sparrow appears to be inspired by the Sikorsky S-300 with the engine from the AĆ©rospatiale Alouette II and the tail setup from the Bell 47.
Design[]
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars[]
The Sparrow appears as a light utility helicopter, with a small enclosed tail. It also features two mounted machine guns.
Grand Theft Auto Online[]
The vehicle has the same design and features as the pre-existing Sea Sparrow, but the pontoons are replaced with regular skids. Some tweaks were also made to the model, such as the skid struts being slightly more vertical, the blades being fully black and the circular detail on the engine bay being fully finished in silver. Like the Sea Sparrow, it uses a small instrument panel with the "Flyer" dial set on it, with the same layout as the Buzzard and its Attack variant.
The vehicle is set to spawn in a light grey primary color for the body and a black secondary color for the small fins of the horizontal stabilizers. However, the respray option from the Moon Pool workshop seems to apply to both primary and secondary colors at once.
Like the Sea Sparrow, the vehicle does not have any weapon, but it can be equipped with one via customization, either a Minigun based on a GAU-19 gatling gun or a small missile launcher with four tubes inside.
Performance[]
Grand Theft Auto Online[]
Vehicle[]
The performance of the Sparrow is a bit different to that of the amphibious variant, as the reduced weight gives it similar traits to the Buzzard and its attack variant. The handling of the helicopter is very nimble, but remains relatively stable (albeit slightly inferior to the Buzzard in that aspect), allowing the player to perform quick maneuvers. In addition, when flying at full speed, the aircraft will slightly descend, similarly to the Buzzard.
Being a standard helicopter, however, the Sparrow is unable to land on water, although it can still hover above water like most helicopters. Due to the skids being part of the aircraft's body, the tail rotor can be kept away from the sea waves. Even in stock condition, the Sparrow performs identically to a fully-upgraded Sea Sparrow.
Like its amphibious variant, the vehicle is powered by a single turboshaft engine, which produces the same rotor sound as the former, as well as most regular helicopters.
Defense[]
In terms of durability, the helicopter remains as vulnerable as the Sea Sparrow and other civilian helicopters in the game (including the Maverick and Frogger), as it has no protection for the occupants against gunfire and cannot withstand a single explosion before being destroyed. The lack of armor upgrades makes it even more fragile to collisions and most form of attacks, and the rigidness of the skids means it can be easily damaged by hard landings, unlike most helicopters with similar setups. Just like other helicopters, after taking enough damage, the engine will begin to smoke, until it will shut down after smoking for two minutes and twenty seconds. The Sparrow will gradually take damage when it is landed on top of a vehicle.
The tail rotor cannot be destroyed by any means, as receiving gunfire will damage the helicopter instead.
A unique feature of the helicopter is that it cannot be targeted by the air defenses of the Galaxy Super Yacht, allowing it to safely fly over or attack players on the yacht without getting blown up.
Countermeasures[]
The vehicle can be fitted with countermeasures to improve its defensive capabilities against homing missiles, each one with their own attributes:
- The Chaff countermeasure disrupts the targeting system from missile launchers, rendering them unable to lock on to the aircraft for five seconds. They have a delay of five seconds before being available again and only have 10 uses.
- The Flare countermeasure drops flares from around the rear of the aircraft, which can "disorient" the homing missile and prevent it from following the aircraft. They have a delay of three seconds before being available again and only have 20 uses.
Weaponry[]
Like the Sea Sparrow, the Sparrow can equip a pilot-operated weapon mounted below the cabin, which only one can be installed at once:
- Minigun: The first option is a three-barreled .50 caliber Minigun, which offers similar statistics as the ones available for the Sea Sparrow and the Havok, though with a degraded fire rate of 600 rounds per minute (while the aforementioned helicopters have a fire rate of 1,200 rounds per minute), and it does not have the ability to blow up vehicles instantly upon being damaged enough (instead, it applies direct damage to the vehicle's engine).
- Missiles: The second option is a missile launcher, which function largely similarly to those on the Sea Sparrow and other aircraft such as the Savage, the FH-1 Hunter and the Akula, having no "reload" cooldown time. When fired in "homing" mode, they are about as accurate as the Buzzard's missiles, losing tracking on a target quite easily and being easily avoided. However, when in "homing off" mode, the missiles will fire at the middle of the crosshair, allowing a skilled pilot to more easily hit targets when compared to the Buzzard. These missiles have a 300 meter/984 foot lock-on range, can also fly for five seconds before detonating, and can travel 540 meters/1772 feet.
Occupants are unable to use drive-by weapons.
Variants[]
| Image | Vehicle | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
 A Sea Sparrow in Grand Theft Auto Online. |
Sea Sparrow | Amphibious variant. Added to GTA Online before the standard model, but considered a modified variant rather than the origin vehicle. | Added as part of the Southern San Andreas Super Sport Series update for Grand Theft Auto Online. |
| Special variants | |||
 A prop Sparrow in Grand Theft Auto Online. |
Sparrow (prop) | Prop variant with folded blades. Only appears inside the Kosatka when stored. | Also added in The Cayo Perico Heist update for Grand Theft Auto Online. |
Modifications[]
The Sparrow carries over any modifications made to its prop variant inside the Moon Pool workshop of the Kosatka.
| Category | Modification | Cost | Image |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weapons | No Weapon | $700 |  |
| Mounted .50 Cal Minigun | $195,000 |   | |
| Mounted Homing Missiles | $240,000 |   | |
| Respray Vehicle | Black | $7,500 | |
| Black Steel | |||
| Silver | |||
| Red | |||
| Lava Red | |||
| Garnet Red | |||
| Wine Red | |||
| Hot Pink | |||
| Pfister Pink | |||
| Salmon Pink | |||
| Orange | |||
| Bright Orange | |||
| Yellow | |||
| Race Yellow | |||
| Dew Yellow | |||
| Racing Green | |||
| Sea Green | |||
| Olive Green | |||
| Gasoline Green | |||
| Lime Green | |||
| Midnight Blue | |||
| Blue | |||
| Surf Blue | |||
| Ultra Blue | |||
| Sienna Brown | |||
| Straw Brown | |||
| Midnight Purple | |||
| Bright Purple | |||
| Cream | |||
| Ice White | |||
| Countermeasures | None | $700 | |
| Chaff [DLC] | $70,000 | ||
| Flare [DLC] | $110,000 | ||
Gallery[]
Design[]
Images[]
A Sparrow in the Android OS version of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.
A Sparrow with the Mounted .50 Cal Minigun upgrade. (Rear quarter view)
A Sparrow with the Homing Missiles upgrade. (Rear quarter view)
The Sparrow on Warstock Cache & Carry.
Artwork[]
A Sparrow seen in artwork for The Cayo Perico Heist update.
Locations[]
Grand Theft Auto Online[]
- The Sparrow is only available as a Moon Pool upgrade for the Kosatka submarine, on Warstock Cache & Carry. It costs $1,815,000.
- It can be requested through the Interaction Menu under the "Kosatka Services", and spawns near the player, similar to VIP/CEO helicopters. Upon being sent back to storage or destroyed, it will have a cooldown of two minutes before requesting it again.
- When entering a player-owned Kosatka, it is temporarily converted into its prop variant for storage.
Prominent Appearances in Gameplay[]
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars[]
- Copter Carnage ā Used by the Spanish Lords to attack Kenny's Warehouse.
Rockstar Games Social Club[]
Oversights[]
Grand Theft Auto Online[]
- The helicopter's listing on Rockstar Games Social Club lists the vehicle as sellable, despite the player not being able to sell it (or the Kosatka itself) in-game.
- Certain spawn locations for the Sparrow may render take-off extremely difficult or impossible; it may spawn under low bridges or have its rotors or tail clipping through geometry, potentially destroying the rotor on take-off or even destroying the Sparrow instantly after spawning or upon the player entering it (killing the player).
- The Sparrow is incorrectly scripted to always play Kult FM which causes unintended behavior in certain situations:
- If requested the helicopter when driving a car, the radio station in the driven car will instantly change to Kult FM as the Sparrow spawns.
- When exiting the Kosatka using the Sparrow, Kult FM will play during the cutscene overlapping the in-game score (if any playing). However, the radio will be off when outside of the sub.
- These were fixed in the Los Santos Tuners update.
- While this was technically fixed, similar issues still exist. Requesting the Sparrow while driving a vehicle will forcibly change the radio station to Music Locker Radio. Entering the Sparrow will change the station to Kult FM. Having either of these stations disabled in the Inventory\Radio Station Favorites menu will turn the radio off instead.
- Using the automatic landing feature at Executive Office helipads with the Kosatka Sparrow and then starting a Special Cargo source mission can cause the game to forget that the Sparrow is a Kosatka vehicle, disabling the "Return Moon Pool Vehicle to Kosatka" option. Instead, it is possible to summon a second Sparrow from the Kosatka, while the first remains active, allowing one player to have two moon pool Sparrows active at the same time.
- A similar bug occurs with the automatic landing feature at The Diamond Casino & Resort and Agencies helipads.
- The vehicle lacks an engine startup sound, and the blades simply start spinning as soon as the pilot sits in the cabin. This action also takes priority over the closing door animation when the player is not using the acceleration button, unlike most aircraft and other vehicles.
- Second players may be unable to open the door to enter the passenger seat of the Sparrow, often instead punching the door and breaking the glass. This can happen on land as well as in the Kosatka hangar and appears to not be impacted by whether the second player is a crew member or not.
- Crew members cannot pilot the Sparrow when leaving the Kosatka Moon Pool helipad, nor can they use the sub's automatic landing feature.
- If parked outside a property, even in a safe location where undisturbed by other players or NPCs, the Sparrow may spawn upside-down when the player exits their property, rendering it impossible to fly.
Specifications[]
Model[]
| Model name | Texture name | Handling name | Text label name | In-game name | Swankness | Flags | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GTA Chinatown Wars | sparrow
|
N/A | SPARROW
|
SPARROW
|
Sparrow | N/A | |
| GTA Online | seasparrow2
|
seasparrow2
|
SEASPARROW2
|
SPARROW2
|
Sparrow | 4
|
|
Population[]
| Groups | Scenario sets | Frequency (%) | Driver model | License plates | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GTA Chinatown Wars | None | N/A | None | N/A | N/A |
| GTA Online | None | None | 100 | s_m_m_pilot_02
|
Standard White - 100% |
Handling[]
| Max velocity (kmh / mph) | Gears | Engine type | Drivetrain | Mass (kg / lbs) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GTA Chinatown Wars | |||||
| GTA Online | 160 / 99.2 | 1 | N/A | RWD | 800 / 1760 |
Audio[]
| Horns | Engine | Police scanner | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Model | Category | Color | |||
| GTA Chinatown Wars | |
|
N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| GTA Online | None | generic_helicopter
|
None | Helicopter | Helicopter | None |
Language[]
| English | Chinese (Traditional) | Chinese (Simplified) | French | German | Italian | Japanese | Korean | MexicanMexicanNahuatl/Aztec/Mexicano | Polish | Portuguese | Russian | Spanish | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GTA Online | Sparrow | é£é | éŗ»é | Sparrow | Sparrow | Sparrow | ć¹ććć¼ | ģ¤ķØė”ģ° | Sparrow | Sparrow | Sparrow | Sparrow | Sparrow |
Traffic Default Colors[]
| GTA Online | PrimaryPrimaryPrimary color (1) | SecondarySecondarySecondary color (2) | PearlescentPearlescentPearlescent color (3) | WheelsWheelsWheel/tertiary color (4) | TrimTrimTrim/quaternary color (5) | AccentAccentAccent/quinary color (6) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Metallic Blue Silver (Metallic) | 2 Metallic Black Steel (Metallic) | 5 Metallic Blue Silver (Metallic) | 111 Metallic White (Metallic) | 111 Metallic White (Metallic) | 0 Metallic Black (Metallic) |
Trivia[]
Grand Theft Auto Online[]
- Passive Mode is disabled even if the vehicle has no weapons. The same applies to its amphibious variant.