Airtrain

A stationary Airtrain at Escobar International Airport.

The Airtrain (name based on the model file), also known as Aeroplane (name based on the texture file) or Air Train (name based on in-game name) is a passenger airplane that appears in Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories.

It functions as a scenery prop in all of its appearances and can only be entered (but not directly controlled) using a glitch in Vice City Stories.

Description

A stationary Airtrain in Grand Theft Auto III.

A stationary Airtrain in GTA Vice City.

Stationary Airtrains in GTA Liberty City Stories.

A stationary Airtrain in GTA Vice City Stories, bearing the Plummet Airlines livery.

The Airtrain takes the appearance of a white Boeing 727. In all its appearances, the airplane is featured in two different ways: Some are stationary solid props in airports and others are seen landing, taxiing and taking off. It seems to be the only kind of airliners that serve Francis International Airport and Escobar International Airport.

In Grand Theft Auto III and GTA Vice City, the flying airtrains are not solid, meaning the player can go through them without taking any damage. Simply spawning the Airtrain using trainers or modifications will crash the game as it's a vehicle that only relies in a path. The Airtrain's flight path is determined by the flight1.dat file.

In GTA Liberty City Stories both the flying and parked airtrains differ from previous renditions, now having less and bigger windows, apparently an extra floor and an overall more cartoonish look. The flying versions are now solid, however, and touching their wheels will heavily injure the player and destroy his vehicle. The player can jump on its wing and "ride" on it while it takes off, yet he will be automatically ejected into the sea a few seconds later, after reaching the game height limit. 

In GTA Vice City Stories it is still solid and will once again make the player lose health when on contact with its wheels. While its flying version uses nearly the same model from III and Vice City, the appearance of the stationary version differs from previous games - Like in Liberty City stories, it seems to have an extra floor for it's cockpit, similar to a 747. Also, instead of being simply painted white with different airliner logos, it is now painted white with a red tailfin and blue nose (with a Plummet Airlines logo). The Airtrains that land and take off still look the same as their previous versions.

There are also 727-like airplanes in the GTA Chinatown Wars rendition of Francis International Airport. They can be seen parked around the airport and taking off and landing in the runways, yet never moving from them after landing.

Entering the Airtrain in Vice City Stories

The flying version of the plane can be entered in GTA Vice City Stories due to a bug - If the player gets on its wing while roaming around from runway to runway, and presses triangle near the meeting point between the back of the wing and the fuselage, he 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 pre-defined route over Vice City - Therefore, technically being similar to purchasing a flight in GTA San Andreas. Oddly, the player can only exit the Airtrain when its back wheels are touching the ground but not the front one, which is when it takes off and lands. It can also be spawned using a cheat device, yet is is once again uncontrollable since there is no scripted handling for it.

Gallery

Side view.

Rear view.

The Airtrain's model in GTA San Andreas without texture.

The shared interior of the plane.

Trivia

• The name "Airtrain" is most likely a parody of Airbus.
  • It could also be a parody of AirTran Airways, a North American low-cost airline.
• The Airtrain in GTA San Andreas is revealed to have performance stats similar to drivable vehicles in the game (see vehicle stats in GTA San Andreas), but does not appear in the final build of the game. This suggests the vehicle was originally to be developed into a controllable vehicle, but was dropped during development, with the AT-400 succeeding the Airtrain. It could also simply be a leftover from Vice City since the model's hierarchy remains the same and does not match that of San Andreas's. However, most of the Airtrain's data can be found within game files, including its model, texture, in-game text and the aforementioned handling code.
• In GTA Liberty City Stories, if the player is driving a vehicle toward the Airtrain, and bails out, the vehicle will not explode after crashing into the Airtrain. However, re-entering the vehicle will detonate it, and the player will die or lose a lot of Health.
• In the GTA III beta, the Airtrain was destroyable, as seen in one of the trailers.
• The name "AT-400", which is the successor of the Airtrain that appears in San Andreas, could stand for "Air Train 400".
• The name "Airtrain" may come from the fact that the Airtrain is actually a Train shaped like a plane which travels along an invisible track.
• If the player does a replay in the PC version of GTA III and GTA Vice City, a bug occurs where the flying version of the Airtrain doesn't appear.
• In Vice CIty Stories, if the player glitches in the plane and puts the game on first person mode and looks backwards, They can see Victor. His model will start shaking when the plane takes flight, making it look like he was made of Jelly. After the plane reaches a certain point, Victors model will shake so wiolently, that it will glitch inside itself and it will not even resemble Victor anymore. This can be a fairly humourous effect.

See also

• AT-400, the only controllable airliner in the 3D Universe, based on a Boeing 737.
• Jet, the only controllable airliner in the HD Universe, based on a Boeing 747.
• Twinjet, an uncontrollable airliner based on the 737 and Airbus A320 in GTA V, which can be considered a spiritual successor of the Airtrain.