D96-TCE Albatross

Albatross

The Albatross Heavy Dropship was a heavy-lift dropship of the United Nations Space Command (UNSC).

Background
From its general design and structure, it seems to be a dedicated cargo dropship for vehicles, crates, weapons and raw supplies such as hydrogen for the ground units in the field, rather than possessing any combat capabilities. It appears suited more towards ferrying supplies to a planet's surface once a landing zone has been secured, as vehicles such as the Pelican have a more aggressive nature and can also double as gunships.

The Albatross has a large cargo bay. It is capable of transporting multiple vehicles at a time. Once it has landed, it lowers three metal ramps holding the bay, allowing its cargo to be unloaded. Both times the Albatross has been seen, it can be used as a makeshift base, indicating that it may also serve as a mobile field command post for the UNSC.

Appearances of the Albatross
The Albatross first appeared as concept art in the book The Art of Halo. It has since made appearances in Halo 2 and 3 (on the multiplayer map Relic and Sandtrap respectively), as well as in Halo Wars. In both Halo 2 and 3, the only observed Albatrosses had crashed into hillsides or had been partially buried. Though some people believe that the Albatross is the ship that ferries supplies in Halo Wars, no official information regarding this matter has been released, and it is therefore assumed that the two ships are different.

Known Albatross Class Dropships

 * 03: Attached to the UNSC Aegis Fate, crash-landed on an abandoned base.

Trivia

 * The Albatross appears on two maps, Relic and Sandtrap. By coincidence, both maps are large, and meant for Big Team Battles, however, both are crashed and unusable, only able to serve as makeshift bases, and sometimes weapon caches.
 * An Albatross is a seabird, in keeping with the UNSC dropship naming tradition of naming all their vehicles as animals (with the exception of the Cyclops).
 * Some Albatrosses have words inscribed on their hulls by their crews, similar to what pilots would paint on the exterior of their bombers in World War 2. On Sandtrap, the crashed Albatross has the words "Covenant Killer Mk C" and "Humanity-1 Flood-0".
 * The Albatross's design was used as inspiration for the design of the Hunter Transports from the Terminator trilogy.
 * Halo Wars is the only game in the Halo trilogy in which Albatrosses can be seen in action rather than discovered crashed.
 * Albatrosses are never encountered in the campaign of Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, or Halo 3.

Related Links

 * United Nations Space Command
 * Pelican- The most common UNSC dropship.
 * D77H-TCI Pelican Dropship- A newer Pelican version.
 * Pod- A heavy transporting craft, similar in design to the Albatross.
 * Human Supply Ship- A Supply Ship commonly confused with the Albatross.