A captive plane is an aircraft (kite, powered, kytoon, kiteplane) which does not fly free, but is held like a kite by a rope from the "pilot" or mooring. The rope or line is not only used for holding the aircraft, but it also allows steering the plane.

Captive planes can be powered by a combustion, by an electric engine, wind, line-based system, or other control means as robots or radio-control means. Nowadays, most people building model planes prefer radio-controlled planes

Radio-controlled aircraft

A radio-controlled aircraft is controlled remotely by a hand-held transmitter and a receiver within the craft...

, because they operate more realistically.