D109H-SLT Jumbo Pelican

This fanfiction article, D109H-SLT Jumbo Pelican, was written by Distant Tide and Sev40. Please do not edit this fiction without the writers' permission.

This is a fanon expansion of a canon element. To see the original canon article, follow the link to Halopedia: Pelican Dropship.

D109H-SLT Jumbo Pelican
Class Overview
DESIGNER	Senior engineer Oscar Rolvsson
BUILDERS	Misriah Aerospace
OPERATORS	UNSC Armed Forces
Technical Specifications
TYPE	Heavy-Lift Transport Aircraft
LENGTH	60 metres (197 ft)
HEIGHT	20 metres (66 ft)
MASS	310 metric tons
Maximum speed	Mach 0.85
PROPULSION DRIVES	6 Misriah Aerospace CFJ-38009 hybrid fusion drives
POWER PLANT	Deuterium fusion reactor
HULL	57-91 millimetres of composite titanium plating
SENSOR SYSTEMS	AN/APS-91 search RADAR AN/AES-441 LIDAR
COUNTERMEASURES	Multispectrum flares Chaff launchers Directional jammers Laser blinders
ARMAMENT	1 twin M370 autocannon 1 M41 Vulcan LAAG (optional)
COMPLEMENT	5 (Pilot, Flight Engineer, Crew Chief, 2 Loadmasters)
Additional Information
ERA	Human-Covenant War
[Source]

The Misriah Aerospace D109H-SLT Jumbo Pelican was a heavy-lift transport aircraft and a specialised variation of the Pelican dropship family intended for hauling heavy cargo and equipment between locations for the UNSC Armed Forces. As the bridge between the UNSC's lighter dropships and the D20 Heron, the aircraft could fulfill a number of mission roles beyond its logistical roots, including rapid airdrops, insertions, and extractions to and from heavy combat zones. Although not intended for use on the frontlines, the rapidly depleting stocks of aerial transports saw Jumbo Pelicans being pressed into combat in ways it was not designed for.

Development

With the D80-LRT Condor proving more expensive to procure than expected, the UNSC now found itself with a shortage of modern heavy-lift transports to replace the D20 Heron. While existing civilian craft could be purchased to hastily meet this need, they often required different logistical needs compared to other aircraft in service, complicating logistics. As the D77-TC Pelican was the single-most numerous dropship under production, the UNSC approached Misriah with a contract to design a stop-gap space-lift transport. It stipulated that the new aircraft needed to share its major systems, such as engines and powerplant, with its smaller cousin, while also being able to lift several times what the Pelican could.

The original D80-LRT Condor served as a starting point for the new D109H-SLT Jumbo Pelican, with its failings being one of the most important focuses for the aircraft.

Before the project even began, Misriah had already conducted a lengthy investigation into the Condor's failure. These revealed two key causes that would directly inform the upcoming transport. First was the dropship's high price tag. Everything about the Condor program was expensive, with the development budget being overrun many times because no slipspace drive was small enough to be mounted onto a dropship. The upfront cost was almost a quarter that of the UNSC Navy's Gladius-class heavy corvette, and it required a dedicated engineer to repair the temperamental engines and slipspace drive. All this result in an fantastically-expensive dropship that made it cost-inefficient for the roles it was supposed to perform. Secondly, the Condor was being pressed into the same roles that smaller, cheaper transports were. This was thanks to its rather small cargo bay, which did not take advantage of the design's ability to haul far greater weights. It had been badly out-competed by Misriah's own D82-EST Darter and Ushuaia Armoury's D96-TCE Albatross. Both of these causes became the prime focusing points for the upcoming aircraft.

Headed by Oscar Rolvsson, the development of what would become the D109 Jumbo Pelican was remarkably swift. Within six months, five different configurations were conceived of, ranging from a measly 40-metre, 190-ton design, to a colossal 85-metre, 570-ton giant. All these designs were surprisingly similar to the final product, thanks to the UNSC taking a more active role in the process. The first working prototype was delivered to the UNSC Marine Corps for testing in April 2537, and their feedback allowed Misriah to refine the design. This included extending its width by about five metres to increase its available space, and changing the structure to make it smoother in flight. Eventually, the UNSC Marine Corps placed an initial order 500 Jumbo Pelicans for limited deployment, which was followed by another 1,000 for the Air Force. The Navy was the last branch to adopt it.

History

Specifications

Variants

D109H-LRT

When the D80 Condor was introduced, one of its most enthusiastic adopters was the UNSC Air Force. Although they quickly retired the aircraft once it became clear how inefficient it was to operate, their brief experience revealed the advantages present in a small dropship able to travel at translight speeds. This interest was still present when the Jumbo Pelican was formally unveiled, which was why Brigadier General Bashkim Shehu approached Misriah's sales team with a request to convert the new spacelifter into a long-range transport.

The D109H-LRT was, superficially, very similar to the basic model, a deliberate choice to keep the costs down. The main difference was the presence of a pronounced dorsal 'hump', which housed the same (albeit upgraded for better reliability) slipspace drive as that used by the earlier Condor, the Starwerx FTL-318 Miniaturised SFTE. The other major difference was the extension of the cockpit to now include mountings for cryotubes, as well as a work station for an EVA engineer. Aside from these, and minute upgrades to the frame to resist stress while entering slipspace, there were no other differences to the original D109H model.

The UNSC Air Force had also been offered a far more heavily modified model dubbed the 'E' or 'Extended'. In this subvariant, the cargo bay now extended to meet the entire length of the Pelican, vastly increasing its internal volume. The missing electromagnets instead lined the bottom of the fuselage. To make up for the loss in speed, two fixed XM67 fusion drives developed in cooperation with the Argus Company replaced the two rear thrust assemblies. Although a far more capable cargo freighter, only a single D109HE-LRT was ever built for testing purposes, which revealed issues that extended beyond its absurd price tag. It was markedly less manoeuvrable, making it even easier to shoot down. Critically, Misriah's engineers did not change the original slipspace drive, which could not cope with the increase in weight and quickly broke down after one or two jumps.

D109H-MHL

G109H-FSV