D77-TC Pelican

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The Dropship 77-Troop Carrier (abbreviated D77-TC), more commonly known as the Pelican, is an extremely versatile craft used by the United Nations Space Command, mainly for the pickup and transportation of personnel, vehicles and equipment, although it can also be used as a powerful support gunship.

Background


The D77-TC Pelican is mainly responsible for the rapid infiltration and extraction of troops. They also deliver vehicles and equipment to the battlefield, when required. The D77-TC has been in service for over fifty years, and is the primary tactical support aircraft of the UNSC. The Pelican serves a multi-role purpose, it is fully capable of atmospheric flight and can land almost anywhere without difficulty, the Pelican is also capable of limited spaceflight, which the UNSC uses as a primary way of delivering troops to the surface from orbit. Standard armament consists of one Class III externally powered projectile weapon at the fore of the vehicle, and one Class I gas-operated projectile weapon mounted at the rear, in the extended crew area. More heavily armed variants exist, with multiple and more powerful weaponry. .

Payload Capacity
The Pelican is capable of carrying passengers and cargo using a combination of internal and external methods. Specifically, the main compartment of the Pelican sometimes called the "Blood Tray". The "Blood Tray" has enough compartment space for ten people, but can hold five additional standing people. Other variants have displayed the ability to hold considerably more as demonstrated by specific scenarios throughout the Halo books. For example, the SPARTAN-II's were assigned a specialized Pelican, which was able to hold the entire team of twenty five as well as fitting cutting gear to board a Covenant warship. Three Pelicans used for the SPARTAN-III Program carried 300 children though this may have been the effort of numerous trips back and forth from the surface.

The large aft overhang gives an attachment point for additional, cargo and ordnance. Possible payloads include a troop deployment pod, a Scorpion tank, a Warthog, or eight Resupply Canister Type-B Capsules. The maximum payload of a Pelican is seventy tons.

Armament
Standard armament consists of a chin-mounted 40mm rotary-cannon which was common prior to 2525, but was later superseded by a 70mm weapon. These chain-guns are usually controlled by the pilot's helmet so that it would aim in the direction of the pilots view, similar to the modern TADS/PNVS found on Apache Gunships or the HUD system in a SPARTAN's armor. Some dropships boasted twin chain guns firing depleted uranium slugs. .

Missile pods, each holding eight ANVIL-II ASMs, can be mounted under each wing to engage more maneuverable or better protected targets. Fire control is typically delegated to the copilot, who was assisted by helmet-mounted display. A M247 GPMG, or a 25mm grenade launcher can also be mounted facing out of the rear cargo hatch and the latter two can be folded flat against the roof of the internal bay when not in use by the crew chief or passenger.

Propulsion
The main engines are mounted in pairs in four nacelles, one on each wing and two at the rear. The nacelles can articulate independently, thus altering (i.e, Vectoring) the direction of thrust and improving the dropship's low altitude maneuverability. Six ventral thrusters, two on each wing nacelle and one on each aft nacelle, allow the Pelican to land and take off vertically. These engines are capable of both space and atmospheric operation. The D77, although fully capable of orbital insertion, is too small to be equipped with a Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine, and thus is incapable of slipspace travel.

The wings mounted on a Pelican seem extremely small, too small to support the weight of dropship and payload alone. It is speculated that it incorporates at least some lifting body principles, its own hull providing most of the lift necessary.

D77H-TCI
Halo 3 introduces the new variant of the Pelican, the D77H-TCI Pelican (The "H" stands for "Heavy", the "I" probably stands for "Infantry"). Externally, it appears nearly identical to the Pelicans used in Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, except for being more angular. Internally, though, the craft has been renovated and it can store equipment in overhead netting. It also mounts an AIE-486H Heavy Machine Gun at the opening of the troop-bay for suppression fire during insertion/extraction missions. The cockpit has been altered, and instead of the side-by-side positioning of the pilot and copilot, the pilot now sits at the fore of the dropship, with the co-pilot behind him/her, and at a higher position, in tandem.

Law Enforcement
Halo 3: ODST introduces a civilian-variant of the Pelican, operated by the New Mombasa Police Department and differentiated from its military counterpart by a black and white color scheme, "POLICE" replacing the traditional "MARINES" on the external hull, and a noted lack of armament. Under the craft's chin, where a machine gun turret or autocannon would normally be installed, are various interchangeable sensors used by the police for aerial surveillance and crowd control.

Identified Pelicans
Pelicans receive serial numbers to be identified by during radio transmissions, particularly in combat situations. Each serial number consists of a letter from the Phonetic Alphabet followed by a number. Though a few Pelicans have this number inscribed on their cargo bays, most have no distinguishing mark on their exteriors. It is unclear how the numbers are chosen, but with their spread across the alphabet and numerals, it can be inferred that a very large number of Pelicans are in service, perhaps as many as 26,000.

Trivia

 * Pelicans in Halo Wars show a Legendary symbol under the cockpit with "Death To Covenant" written under it.


 * All Pelican dropships in Halo: Combat Evolved bear either the numbers E419 (Echo 419) or V933 (Victor 933). The Pelican in "The Silent Cartographer" is incorrectly labeled as V933. All others are labeled E419. It is likely that because of the extreme time constants of the development cycle of Halo: CE Bungie was unable to properly label each pelican correctly.


 * Pelicans in Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 are never seen carrying more than six Marine troops at a time, despite being capable of carrying up to fifteen. However, it is likely that this is merely because UNSC troops usually work in small teams during engagements, comprising of five to six men, known as Fire Teams. Another likely reason is that the Master Chief, in full armor, weighs in at about 1,000 lbs, making him weigh approximately as much as five fully armed marines. Thus, with the Master Chief on board, a Pelican carrying a single Fire Team is carrying the equivalent weight of 11-12 Marines, a number close to the 15-person capacity.


 * In Halo 2, the Pelican carries two missile pods, each loaded with eight ANVIL-II Air-to-Surface Missiles. The only times the dropships ever uses them in combat is during the end of the level "Metropolis", against a Scarab, and at the beginning of "Delta Halo", when Johnson's Pelican uses them against the remaining Covenant forces. It is also used in "Quarantine Zone", after the player first encounters a Scorpion. When the player moves to the next section, a Pelican (unknown if human or Flood-controlled) will fire missiles as it passes by at either the player or the Sentinels. Its 70mm chain gun, on the other hand, is used twice during "Outskirts", both times against Jackals as well as the "Delta Halo" level. On occasion, the Pelican also attacks the Banshees when they attack the player.


 * The UD4L Cheyenne dropship from the movie Aliens served as conceptual inspiration of the Pelican for Halo.


 * In Halo: Combat Evolved on the level "343 Guilty Spark", you can stay on the Pelican by throwing a grenade before it takes off again. You will not die but the Pelican will crash on the top of the map on the hills where you can find the unarmed Marine.


 * The Pelican's troop bay has been stated by Bungie employee Robert McLees as large enough to fit a modern M1A1 Abrams main battle tank.


 * The Pelican in Halo: Combat Evolved has a darker cockpit that the one in Halo 2 and the D77H-TCI in Halo 3; both of the Pelicans in the later two games appear have a more transparent cockpit.


 * The maximum atmospheric speed of the Pelican is 75 km/h (46 mph), but in Halo: The Flood, just before the battle of Alpha Base, Wellsley claims six major thermal signatures are advancing towards the base at about 350 km/h (217 mph). These two provided ratios conflict with each other, thus making it harder to determine the "real" speed of the vehicles.


 * The pelican is known to be drivable in Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 by means of modding. The player can also fly the Pelican in Halo 3 in the level The Covenant, by modding the game. A video of this mod can be found here.


 * There is a glitch in the Halo 2 level Metropolis where the player can operate the pelican. It will take the player out of the map, then flips, ejecting the player. If the player attempts to right the flipped Pelican, the script will read "Hold X to flip Banshee", because Bungie never intended for the Pelican to be operable by the player, and therefore did not make a unique message.


 * Pelicans may share some similarities with lifting bodies such as the Martin X-24. Due to the Pelican's unique fuselage design, lift could be generated from air passing over the fuselage in much the same manner as lift is generated by passing over an airfoil. The Pelican's short wings also suggest that either lift is generated by the fuselage or the Pelican supports some form of antigravity technology, as their cross-section is not great enough to be the sole source of the Pelican's lift. Additionally, the Pelican maneuvers by the manipulation of its main wings and rear nacelles, which is possibly a spinoff from the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey, a modern-day tilt-rotor aircraft. The V-22 uses its rotating nacelles to function as both a helicopter by directing them vertically, and an airplane by directing them horizontally.

Gallery
 Image:PelicanII-Sil.gif|D77-TC schematics Image:1215452971 Pelican.jpeg|A Pelican in Halo: Combat Evolved. Image:1217908331 Marines.jpg|A group of Marines in a Pelican. Image:1225327600 Destroyed pelican.jpg|A crashed Pelican in flames. Image:PelicanOnHarvest.JPG|Three Pelicans in the Halo Wars CGI trailer. Image:Phantom and Pelican.png|A Pelican in a woodland camouflage scheme. Image:Hornet war.jpg|A squadron of Hornets and Sparrowhawks attempt to protect a number of Pelican dropships from a Scarab in Halo Wars. Image:Pelican04.jpg|The Pelican as it appears in Halo 2. 

Internal Links

 * Phantom - The Covenant equivalent to the Pelican.
 * Spirit - Another Covenant equivalent to the Pelican.