D77H-TCI Pelican
What is D77H-TCI Pelican?
History of D77H-TCI Pelican
The Dropship 77 Heavy-Troop Carrier/Infantry, abbreviated D77H-TCI, or more commonly known as the Pelican, is a newer model of the venerable D77-TC Pelican dropship, introduced into service within the UNSC Marine Corps and Navy in late 2552 and early 2553 from the video game Halo. The D77H-TCI is a fleet-wide upgrade to the UNSC's Pelican dropships, used in active service for more than fifty years. First seen deployed in November, 2552, the D77H-TCI Pelican is the primary tactical support aircraft of the UNSC. Like its previous model, the D77H-TCI Pelican serves as a multi-role purpose aircraft. The dropship is fully capable of atmospheric andor limited spaceflight and can land almost anywhere without difficulty making it the primary troop transport of the UNSC. The D77H-TCI has 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-TCI which instead of having the pilot and co-pilot sitting next to each other, the co-pilot 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. The pressurized payload area has also seen a design change, the D77H-TCI 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 M12A1 Light Anti-Armor Vehicle, 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. The D77H-TCI Pelican, like its predecessor, is compatible with the 40mm rotary cannon and the 70mm Chain Gun 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 been 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, which is equipped with more chainguns, missiles, and a large cannon, mounted at the ventral-fore of the dropship. 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, allowing 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.
