SKT-9 Bumblebee

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Template:Ship Class Infobox The Class-3 Enclosed Heavy Lifeboat, Controlled,^[1] commonly known as the Bumblebee,^[2] is a type of escape pod for the UNSC. It is a sixth-generation lifeboat, and features a pilot-operated guiding system similar to that of SKT-13 and SKT-21 shuttlecrafts.^[1]

Class-3 lifeboats are typically found on UNSC cruisers,^[1] which carry several sets of them, stationed at designated airlocks. Like Pelican dropships, each has a call sign, usually consisting of three letters from the Phonetic Alphabet, followed by a two-digit number. The Bumblebee can hold up to nine people (including the pilot) and it has enough supplies to last a week before it runs out of food and clean air.^[3]

Features

The Class-3 was designed to ferry up to nine people at a time. It has one pilot seat as well as eight side-facing crash seats. The seats have harnesses to keep people from injury when crash-landing. Though they are noted as being one of the safer methods of UNSC ship evacuation,^[1] the effectiveness of the safety features on the Bumblebee vary greatly, as can their reliability. During the Battle of Installation 04, some Bumblebees landed without any injuries to their passengers, while others suffered catastrophic failures while in mid-air, resulting in the deaths of most or all aboard upon impact.

Bumblebees are heavily armored, and feature thrusters and air-brakes to slow down during descent.^[1] They have little in the way of maneuverability, as they are not intended for extended atmospheric use; Jacob Keyes noted that a Bumblebee lifepod "flew like a rock".^[4] Normally after a landing, the pod can never be used again, as the pods will most likely suffer a great amount of damage, including the air brakes breaking off before or during the impact.

The UNSC Pillar of Autumn carried eighteen Bumblebees. Most of them were used to evacuate the vessel when it was shot down during the Battle of Installation 04 on September 19, 2552.^[5]^[6]

Known Bumblebees

Trivia

The Bumblebee's front window is "breakable". If you make a Warthog hit it hard by propelling it with an explosive, the window will make a breaking sound but will still appear to be intact.
There is some animosity between Bumblebee pilots and Pelican pilots.^[7]
If you look closely, you can see that when the Master Chief's escape pod launches, it still has its rear hatch open.
It is possible that the John-117's presence on the escape pod contributed to the failure of the pod's landing routine: combined with his MJOLNIR Mark V armor, John-117 weighed nearly 1,000 pounds^[8], which in addition to 7 or 8 Marines and a pilot may have put the pod's mass in excess of its design specifications. On the other hand, it is also unlikely that the Bumblebee's designers would utilize highly constrained mass profiles in designing the pod, given that atmospheric resistance and gravity vary considerably from planet to planet.
In Halo: Custom Edition, Bumblebees have been modded into maps. They have closed rear hatches until someone pilots them at which point the hatch opens. As Bungie only designed these for cutscenes it is likely to allow for the doors opening or closing during the final cutscene on The Pillar Of Autumn.

Gallery

The Bumblebee design.
Bumblebee cutaway.
Views of the Bumblebee without its air brakes and with air brakes deployed in Halo: Combat Evolved.
HCE-BumblebeeLifeboat.png

The Bumblebee as it appears in-game in Halo: Combat Evolved.
HCE-BumblebeeLifeboat02.png

Alternate preview of the Bumblebee as it appears in Halo: Combat Evolved.
A Bumblebee entering the atmosphere of Installation 04.
A Bumblebee deploying its air brakes and forward thrusters during atmospheric descent.
Bumblebee Lima Foxtrot Alpha 43, ferrying the Master Chief escapes the UNSC Pillar of Autumn at the onset of the Battle of Installation 04.
A crashed Bumblebee, its reverse thrusters smoking from recent discharge. The lifeboat cut a sliding trench into the ground on impact.
A Bumblebee pilot, as see in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary with an updated flight suit.
A Bumblebee pilot, as seen in Halo: Combat Evolved.