Canon

SKT-9 Bumblebee

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This article is about the class of lifeboats onboard UNSC Pillar of Autumn. For other lifeboats named "Bumblebee", see Bumblebee.
SKT-9 Bumblebee
Bumblebee.png
Production information

Manufacturer:

Vosper Engineering[1]

Class:

Lifeboat shuttle[1]

Role:

Technical specifications

Length:

10.5 meters (34.5 ft)[1][2]

Width:

  • 5.2 meters (17.2 ft)[1][2]
  • 9.3 meters (30.5 ft) (with air brakes deployed)[3][4]

Height:

4.1 meters (13.3 ft)[1]

Mass:

12.7 metric tons (14 tons)[1]

Slipspace drive:

None

Crew:

Chronological and affiliation

Affiliation:

UNSC Navy

 

The SKT-9 Bumblebee,[5] formally known as the Class-3 Enclosed Heavy Lifeboat, Controlled,[2] is a variant of the UNSC lifeboat commonly known as the Bumblebee.[1][6] It is a sixth-generation lifeboat, and features a pilot-operated guiding system similar to that of SKT-13 and SKT-21 shuttlecrafts.[2]

Overview[edit]

Design details[edit]

The SKT-9 Bumblebee is a medium-endurance (Class 3) vehicle;[1] it is well-armored, though Jacob Keyes once considered the possibility that a 12.7x40mm round may penetrate the relatively thin hull.[7] The SKT-9 are typically found onboard UNSC cruisers,[2] which carry several sets of them, stationed at designated airlocks. Several SKT-9 Bumblebees were also carried aboard Cairo Station.[5] The docking ports for Bumblebees are comparable in size to the Brhi Xur-pattern Leech boarding craft used by the Covenant, allowing the Covenant to use the airlocks to conduct boarding actions on UNSC spacecraft.[8]

Like Pelican and other dropships, each Bumblebee has a call sign, usually consisting of three letters from the phonetic alphabet, followed by a two-digit number.[9] SKT-9 Bumblebees are equipped with beacons,[10] and possess limited visual and audio capture capabilities.[11]

The SKT-9 can hold up to nine people (including the pilot), and it has enough supplies to support 126-person-days of life support.[1] It has one pilot seat as well as eight side-facing crash seats. The seats have harnesses to keep passengers from injury when crash-landing.[3][4] Though they are noted as being one of the safer methods of UNSC ship evacuation,[2] the effectiveness of the safety features on this Bumblebee vary greatly, as can their reliability. During the Battle of Installation 04, some of these Bumblebees landed without any injuries to their passengers, while others suffered catastrophic failures while in mid-air, resulting in the deaths of most, if not all, aboard upon impact.[10]

The SKT-9 Bumblebee employs thrusters and air-brakes to slow down during descent.[2] Although it has a pilot control station,[1][12] the Bumblebee has little in the way of maneuverability, as it is not intended for extended atmospheric use, nor are its thrusters powerful enough to escape a planet's atmosphere;[3][4] while onboard one, Jacob Keyes thought that his Bumblebee lifeboat "flew like a rock".[9] Instead, the lifeboat uses a simple escape-and-evasion autopilot routine after boosting away from its host vessel.[1][12] Once it enters atmosphere, the Bumblebee makes a controlled crash landing with aerobr