D109H-SLT Jumbo Pelican

The Misriah Aerospace Jumbo Pelican was a heavy-lift transport aircraft and a specialised variation of the intended for hauling heavy cargo and equipment between locations for the . As the bridge between the UNSC's lighter dropships and the , 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 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 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.
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 , 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 and . 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 for testing in , 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 . 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 . The other major difference was the extension of the cockpit to now include mountings for , 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.
During the Covenant War, several Marine Corps D109H-LRTs transported fireteams between distant engagements across star systems or even entire sections of contested human space. While this occurrence was not a regular affair with ONI prowlers and dedicated warships performing the majority of transporting for SPARTAN-IIs, it was noteworthy enough that the D109H briefly received moniker as the "Spartan Jumbo Pelican." The unofficial designation did not last the war, but was revived for fiction during collaboration between the official historian and the writing team for the animated series Odd One Out: The Animated Series. The design in the show however did take some creative liberties, always seeming a little more spacious and sized a bit differently than the real thing.
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. The cost to replace this with a new model was judged as far too expensive for mass production, and so it was never adopted.
===D109H-MHL===
===G109H-FSV===
The Gunship-109 Heavy-Fire Support Vehicle, nicknamed the Firebird, was a heavily-armed variant of the Jumbo Pelican optimized for close-in attack work. It was created to address the failures of the , whose power and ability to suppress heavy ground advances was curtailed by a costly, complicated construction.
Without any constraints from carrying cargo, the G109H-FSV was given far better armor, utilizing 150-210mm of used to protect starships. However, later versions replaced this with grapheal instead, due there being far too much demand for the battleplate and production was declining as the Covenant War dragged on. Its airframe used an all-steel construction instead of foamed aluminium, greatly increasing its ability to weather impacts at the cost of considerable weight. Its weapons consisted of two twin 50mm autocannons (one on each side), seven M41 Vulcan 12.7mm machine guns, and 10 Anvil-IV missile cells.
===D114-SLT===
Announced in , the D114-SLT was a successor model that was based on the parts used for the new released following the Human-Covenant War. This was despite the UNSC not releasing an official contract for its development, although they trialed a number of aircraft that fulfilled the same niche as the Jumbo Pelican. It was six metres longer, yet weighed 30 tonnes less thanks to the use of a lighter airframe and smaller components. Modern technology made it faster, longer-ranged, and more manoeuverable, while a new powerplant could provide 40% greater output than what it required. Other improvements included a full wavespace communications suite, docks for , and hardpoints that could power various directed energy weapons currently under development.
Misriah had only delivered four prototypes to the UNSC before the began, and it never entered production. One possible issue was, ironically, because the UNSC readopted the Condor. As the new G81 model was small enough to be built on surplus Pelican airframes, and the additional engines provided greater towing power, there was far less of a need for the Jumbo Pelican.
Category:UNSC
Category:UNSC Aircraft