GP Cap 232
The CAP 232 in Great Planes (GP) sponsorship livery — France's three-time World Aerobatic Champion mount — captured as a giant-scale RC model.
About
The CAP 232 is the work of Cap Aviation of Darois, France, a manufacturer whose roots in the French aerobatic-aircraft tradition reach back to the 1950s. The 232 was developed from the earlier CAP 230, an aerobatic single-seat that had been built for the French Air Force in 1985, and the prototype made its first flight on July 7, 1994. The combination of a lightweight wooden fuselage and a newly designed carbon-fiber wing gave the type a roll rate in excess of 420 degrees per second, and a 300hp Lycoming AEIO-540 engine produced climb rates above 3,300 feet per minute.
Those numbers translated into competition results. The CAP 232 placed second at the 1996 World Aerobatic Championships in Oklahoma City, and went on to win the overall World Aerobatic Championship title in 1998, 2000, and 2007 — three world titles that put the type at the absolute top of unlimited aerobatic competition during its years of dominance. CAP 232s also took first place in both Men's and Women's divisions at the 1995 European Aerobatics Championships.
This RC model is finished in "GP" livery, a sponsor scheme reflecting one of the type's many real-world branded paint jobs over the years. The unmistakable French-aerobat silhouette — short-coupled, low-wing, with the distinctive bubble canopy — is one of the more popular European-aerobatic subjects in modern RC scale flying, with foam, balsa, and giant-scale CAP 232 kits appearing at competition fly-ins around the world.
In the simulator
A demanding aerobatic mount in the spirit of the real airframe. The GP CAP 232 in our sim has the kind of immediate response, generous control authority, and short-coupled handling that competition pilots train for. Use it for the unlimited-aerobatic vocabulary: vertical lines, knife-edge passes, slow rolls, and tight aerobatic-box figures. Pairs well with clean grass-strip landscapes that suit a competition-aircraft presentation. A natural sibling to the Cap232 White (CV Planes Pack 2) and the Edge 540 line — same competition class, different liveries.
