D77H-TCI Pelican

D77H-TCI Pelican

The D77H-TCI Pelican is a newer model of the venerable D77-TC Pelican, recently introduced into service within the UNSC Marine Corps and Navy in late 2552 and early 2553 (the Halo 3 era). It differs from the D77-TC in many respects, but is also improved in several ways. It still operates as a flexible dropship/gunship VTOL.

Background
The D77H-TCI is a fleet wide upgrade to the UNSC's squadrons of Pelican Drop ships, incorporating many differences from its older counterparts. First seen deployed in November, 2552, the newer model assisted in the recovery effort to rescue Spartan-117 from the jungle region in Kenya , and evacuated wounded Marines from Crows Nest base as it suffered Covenant assault. Others would airlift Marines and equipment to reinforce the UNSC's attempts to retake the town of Voi, coordinating with Hornet air forces.

Later, D77H-TCI Pelicans would take part in the Elite-Human assault on the Covenant at The Ark, inserting Spartan-117 and a team of ODST's to secure a landing zone for the Forward Unto Dawn and pick them up again as they discovered the location of the Prophet of Truth and his forces. A joint force of Pelicans and Elite Phantoms would deliver Spartan-117, the Arbiter and Sergeant Major A. J. Johnson to deactivate three shield generators protecting the Prophet's location at the Arks Core, with several being taken down by Type-52 Anti Aircraft Artillery Wraiths and by Banshees, fighting their way to allow the Arbiter and Spartan-117 to assault the third generator and shut it down. A D77H-TCI was used by Commander Miranda Keyes's failed attempt to rescue Sergeant Johnson from Truth and his Brute forces, and was used by the Sergeant to escape from a Flood assault.

A D77H-TCI Pelican crashed on High Charity, which in turn crashed onto The Ark. It was used by Spartan-117 and the Arbiter to rescue the UNSC AI Cortana, and then flew to Installation 04 (II)'s Control Room. Pelicans have saved the lives of many Marines and Spartans due to their flexibility, offensive capabilities, and ability to successfully and quickly air lift in equipment and/or reinforcements into or out of the battle field.

Although the pelican is not the favorite of all aircraft, players like it enough to mimic it with elephants.

Payload Capacity
Though an upgrade, the D77H-TCI variant of the Pelican carries the same number of passengers as its predecessor. However, its troop-bay is more flexible, able to carry up to two Mongoose ULATV's internally, in addition to ten passengers.

The D77H-TCI Pelican's cockpit also differs from its predecessor, using a tandem seating rather than the side-by-side configuration used on the D77-TC. It is presumed that the pilot furthest toward the front operates the craft's flight systems, with the co-pilot seated behind him operating the other systems. A small holo-tank has been installed in the series, allowing an artificial intelligence to project its holographic form to the craft's pilots.

Its tail mounted magnetic clamps are capable of carrying a M12 Warthog LRV, M12G1 Warthog LAAG or M831 TT Warthog, an M808B Scorpion MBT, or four Type C Resupply Capsules rather than six of the older Type B Resupply Capsules, to the battlefield, able to detach its payload without landing, decreasing loiter time substantially.

Armament
The D77H-TCI Pelican lacks the nose-mounted chain-gun of its predecessor (though in cutscenes, a barrel like object was seen appearing out of the Pelican's nose), though it is able to mount an AIE-486H Heavy Machine Gun in its troop-bay compartment for supporting ground teams and covering the ingress/egress of its passengers, an improvement from the previous M247 GPMG. Although this prevents it from carrying a mongoose internally. Its wings can attach on 2 missile-pods for engaging air or ground hostile units, which has proven effective against enemy Phantom Dropships and Covenant infantry, able to fire more missiles and faster than the older ANVIL-II ASM Pods. It can fire up to 12 missiles at once, 6 from each pod. The D77H-TCI can also be equipped with a much larger cannon, mounted at the ventral-fore of the dropship. other than this, the D77H-TCI carries relatively few weapons.

Propulsion
The main engines are mounted in pairs in four nacelles, one situated on each wing and two at the rear and posterior. The nacelles can articulate independently, thus altering (referred to as vectoring in aviation) the direction of thrust and improving the D77H-TCI Pelican's low speed and low altitude maneuverability. Four ventral thrusters are identified by markings and a rendered thrust effect, one on each wing nacelle and one on each aft nacelle, allow the drop ship to land and take off vertically. These engines are capable of both space and atmospheric operation. It has 8 jet intakes, 3 on each side (2 on top). The D77H-TCI Pelican is too small to have a Slipspace matrix mounted inside. Although, a Longsword fighter can.

The wings mounted on a Pelican seem extremely small, too small to support the weight of drop ship and payload alone. It is speculated that it utilizes at least some Lifting Body principles, using its own hull create most of the lift necessary for flight.

Although it is more likely that the Pelican partially relies upon thrust vectoring, referred to as jet-borne flight as opposed to wing-borne flight which can be further reinforced with the fact that down-ward aiming jets can be seen on the bottom of the thruster mountings.

It should be noted that small wings are very efficient for high-speed flight, as demonstrated by the F-104 Starfighter. It is also a benefit for operations in the upper atmosphere, especially re-entry, as was the case with the X-15.

Identified D77H-TCI Pelican Dropships

 * Echo 51
 * Kilo 23
 * Oscar 5
 * Oscar 6
 * Oscar 8
 * Oscar 9
 * Victor 398

Trivia

 * The D77H-TCI Pelican can be seen being assembled autonomously by Misriah Armories in the Halo: Arms Race short film.
 * On some Pelicans you can see the pilot and co-pilot through the cockpit glass, although on others they cannot be seen. The ones in which the pilots cannot be seen in are Pelicans that do not have a cockpit design. This has been confirmed through theater mode, where one can go in the back of a Pelican with the camera.
 * The cockpit crew appear to have the ability to eject, although this is never seen in-game.
 * In the cockpit it has a screen which in Hocus' Pelican reads "connected to UNSCDF via local grid Pz87-3383", It also has the insignia of the UNSCDF in the upper left corner. This screen is also used as a method of communication in scripted sequences.
 * It is possible to kill the pilots in Halo 3 by using a plasma grenade on Sierra 117, making it impossible to complete the level.
 * Pelicans, unlike Phantoms are invincible in-game, surviving direct hits from the weapons of everything from a Scorpion to a Scarab.