D77H-TCI Pelican

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The Dropship 77 Heavy-Troop Carrier/Infantry, abbreviated D77H-TCI, more commonly known as the Pelican, is a newer model of the venerable Dropship 77-Troop Carrier, introduced into service within the United Nations Space Command Marine Corps and Navy in late 2552 and early 2553.

Background

The D77H-TCI is a fleet-wide upgrade to the UNSC's Pelican dropships, were used in active in service for over fifty years. First seen deployed in November, 2552 ^[1] the Pelican 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, making it the prime troop transport of the UNSC. The D77H-TCI makes several drastic design changes to both the interior, and exterior, although the exteriors changes are not as noticeable as the interior is. The first significant change is in the cockpit area of the D77H which instead of having the pilot and co-pilot sitting next to each other, the copilot is now seated behind and above the pilot, the control's and instrument panels have been rearranged and upgraded for the D77H. A small holo-tank is installed in the cockpit, allowing an artificial intelligence to project its holographic form to the craft's pilots.^[2]

Payload Capacity

A bottom-profile of the D77H-TCI.

The pressurized payload area has also seen a design change, 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 M274 Ultra-Light All-Terrain Vehicle internally, in addition to ten passengers, also it has a hermetic door on its rear section for ship-to-shore orbital insertions. Its tail-mounted magnetic clamps are capable of carrying an M12 Light Reconnaissance Vehicle, an M12G1 Light Anti-Armor Vehicle, or an M831 Troop Transport, an M808B Main Battle Tank, or four Type C Resupply Capsules rather than six Type B Resupply Capsules, to the battlefield, able to detach its payload without landing decreasing the chance of an attack while it unloads.

Armament

The D77H-TCI Pelican, like its predecessor, is compatible with the rotary cannons in both 40mm and 70mm types. The Pelican is also able to mount an AIE-486H Heavy Machine Gun in its troop bay for supporting ground teams and covering the departure of its passengers, an improvement from the previous M247 General Purpose Machine Gun, although this prevents it from carrying a vehicle internally. The D77H can also be equipped with ANVIL-II Air-to-Surface Missile pods; the design of the pods has changed, and now seamlessly blends with the Pelican. The new ANVIL pods can fire up to 12 missiles at once, six from each pod. A Gunship version of the D77H is in service as well, this heavily armed version, is equipped with more chainguns, missiles, and a large cannon, mounted at the ventral-fore of the dropship^[3].

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 the direction of thrust, referred to as vectoring in aviation; This improves the Pelican's 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 eight jet intakes, three on each side and two on top.

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. It may also be 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. The D77H-TCI, like the D77-TC, 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.

Identified Pelicans

Trivia

A police version of the Pelican appears in Halo 3: ODST. This version is colored black and white, and has the front turret replaced by optic surveillance gear.
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.
In Halo 3, it is possible to "destroy" a Pelican by throwing a grenade into the cockpit. If so, then the Pelican will sink through the floor.

Gallery

Concept art of different color schemes of the NMPD's Pelican dropships.
A Pelican dropping off two ODSTs on Installation 00.
D77H-TCI Pelicans under construction.
The rear seats of a D77H-TCI Pelican.
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A Pelican seen from the front, with ANVIL-II pods attached.
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Pelicans outside The Pit.
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A comparison of how big the troop bay actually is.
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The NMPD version of the D77H-TCI.
The cockpit of the D77H-TCI.
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A Pelican dropship in the hangar of Crow's Nest in Halo 3.
The cockpit of the Pelican dropship.
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The Pelican as it appears in Halo 3.
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A top view of the Pelican as it appears in Halo 3.
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A front-view of the Pelican as it appears in Halo 3's campaign level Crow's Nest.
A crashed Pelican on Installation 00.
A Pelican crashed on High Charity.