AT-400
AT-400 | |
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An AT-400 in flight GTA San Andreas. | |
Appearance(s) | GTA San Andreas |
Vehicle type | Civilian fixed-wing aircraft |
Body style | Passenger jetliner |
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The AT-400 is a jet airliner in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Description
Based on either the Boeing 737-300 or the Airbus A320 commercial jets, the AT-400's large size and sluggish response makes the plane harder to control, similar to the Andromada. Nevertheless, the plane can in fact be used to execute stunts, including barrel rolls and loop-the-loops.
A primary disadvantage to this plane is once you land and get out you can't get back in because the door is very high from the ground. The only way you can get back in it to find a Baggage with a ladder attached to the back, land the plane at Las Venturas Airport and go to the hangar again, or find a Yankee and jump over it, using its back side as a platform. Los Santos International has unmovable ramps that can also be used to disembark from the airplane.
Unlike most other planes, this plane is also the only one that can be flown over Area 69 with less chance of being shot down by homing missiles, providing you don't hang around. The AT-400 is also only one of two aircraft that can fly to the maximum height in the game, the other being the Hydra.
Like the other planes, it can also be seen flying in the distance, but it is hard to take down the flying AT-400, even with homing rockets or kamikaze style attack. The plane is also used for paid commercial flights between cities in San Andreas.
Location
As a controllable vehicle, the plane is considerably rare, appearing in only one location, inside the large airport hangar in Las Venturas Airport in Las Venturas, when the player approaches from the south. Regardless, the plane does not always spawn in the hangar. As there is no reference made in the game to the plane being available, and unless the player thoroughly explores the airport property he may not trigger the hangar doors to open, the plane qualifies as an easter egg.
Trivia
- Like most other aircraft in the game, the AT-400 plays K-DST by default.
- The AT-400 is the largest controllable vehicle in the game (the second is Tug, a boat from GTA IV), the Andromada being the third largest. Interestingly enough, when comparing their real life counterparts the cargo plane (Andromada) is actually bigger than the passenger jet (AT-400).
- The AT-400's initials are similar to that of the Air Train, a similarly sized airliner that repeatedly appears as a static prop earlier in GTA III and GTA Vice City. The suffix '-400' suggests that it is a more advanced version of the Air Train.
- In real life, the twin-engine 737 (the design of which inspired the AT-400) succeeded the trijet 727, on which the Air Train is based.
- Certain modifications, like the "Fly Mod" and the "Anti-Material Rifle", can knock an AT-400 out of the sky but it still takes a lot of practice to bring one down even with modifications.
- There is no way the AT-400 can be saved at a garage, since the entrance at the aircraft hangar at Verdant Meadows is too small for the plane to fit; obviously, normal garages at safehouses are way too small.
- Of all aircraft in GTA San Andreas, the AT-400 is the most durable of all. Even when shot from SAM sites it can withstand between 8 to 11 hits before blowing up and falling from the sky.
- As the AT-400 is based on the Boeing 737, its presence in the game as well as only being found at Las Venturas Airport, which is in itself based on Las Vegas Airport, could be a reference to Janet Airlines who operate Boeing 737s out of Las Vegas to shuttle workers to the Nevada Test Site including Area 51, which in turn is parodied by Area 69.
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