Maverick

The Maverick has been spotted in the Vice City region for Grand Theft Auto VI. Early promotional appearances used the Grand Theft Auto IV-era form, including its four-blade main rotor, with a nose-mounted camera added beneath the front section. Later promotional appearances showed a more extensively altered helicopter whose shape is closer to the Bell 206 family.

These GTA VI appearances establish the Maverick’s return, but the material identified here does not assign it a manufacturer, price, class, missions, or player-accessible equipment for the new game.

Its basic form draws chiefly from the Bell 206L LongRanger: a light civilian helicopter with a long cabin-and-tailboom layout. The Maverick’s nose is substantially shorter than the LongRanger’s and resembles the front end of the Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil instead.

Grand Theft Auto IV gave the aircraft a four-blade rotor comparable to that of the Bell 407. Grand Theft Auto V and Online changed this to a two-blade arrangement like the 206L’s. The larger skid gear used in those games is shared with the AS350-inspired Police Maverick. Rockstar’s Elitás Travel copy describes the Maverick as Canadian-built and jokes that it was considered too French for the United States military, referencing Bell’s Quebec production plant.

The HD-era Maverick appeared in Grand Theft Auto IV, Episodes from Liberty City, Grand Theft Auto V, and Grand Theft Auto Online. Western Company is named as its manufacturer in IV, while Buckingham is credited in V and Online. In V and Online it belongs to the Helicopters class and uses the Single Heli body type.

IV presented a taller fuselage than earlier portrayals, roof windows, shorter skids, revised engine-bay vents and exhaust outlets, and rear sliding doors that remained open. Rear passengers sat at the edge of the rear compartment rather than in the rear seats. Pre-release IV material had instead shown closed rear doors, a two-blade rotor, and a different seating arrangement.

V and Online retained the basic IV model but fitted tall skids with steps, divided the cockpit-door windows, and installed a camera plus two winches. The camera can be operated by NPCs or Online players. The winches do not function for the player in V, while Online allows limited use. Enhanced-edition instruments animate an altimeter, compass, airspeed and vertical-speed gauges, along with an attitude indicator.

In IV, the Maverick used a white fuselage and tail boom with alternate skid colours, MAVERICK markings on both sides of the nose, and a DJO.250676 marking on the tail. V replaced that scheme with one selectable body colour and fixed silver MAVERICK lettering on the engine compartment. A personal aircraft conversion in Online permits only primary-colour repainting; its permanent livery remains.

It cost $1,100,000 through Elitás Travel in V and $780,000 in Online. The V store version appeared in black and white, while green Mavericks operated at parachute locations. In the enhanced Online edition, a hangar stores it as a Small vehicle. Online spawn points after rank 7 included Los Santos International Airport and the Vespucci Helipad, with occasional appearances at Sandy Shores Airfield and near the Paleto Bay Sheriff’s Office.

An all-black Maverick appears during IV’s Babysitting and The Ballad of Gay Tony’s Ladies’ Night. The Ballad of Gay Tony also uses a dark-red example in In the Crosshairs, while V’s Unknowing the Truth includes a baby-blue helicopter. Merryweather employs Mavericks in several V and Online activities, including helicopter pickup service; the player may rappel from its winch when a waypoint is placed on certain rooftops or suitable ground locations.

The IV Social Club entry mistakenly displayed a Police Maverick image for the updated Maverick, an error absent from Online’s Social Club page. A Rockstar Newswire post for Nebula Turbo Week also incorrectly called the Online Maverick a Western Company product despite Buckingham being its stated V and Online manufacturer. The IV cockpit contains a tiny warning sticker saying the helicopter may crash and directing occupants to the flight manual.