Class-3 Enclosed Heavy Lifeboat, Controlled

Class-3 Enclosed Heavy Lifeboat, Controlled

Production information

Manufacturer

UNSC

Class

Escape pod

Technical information

Length

10.4 meters (34 ft 7 in)^[1]

Width

2.2 (7 ft 2 in) (9.3 meters with air brakes deployed)^[1]

Height/depth

4.0 meters (13.3 feet) (9.0 meters with air brakes deployed)

Max speed (space)

1,041 kilometers per hour^{[citation needed]}

Max speed (atmosphere)

173.5 kilometers per hour^{[citation needed]}

Slipspace drive

None

Shielding

None

Hull

Able to withstand atmospheric re-entry

Armament

None

Crew

One pilot

Passengers

8+ passengers

Other systems

Air brakes

Usage

Role(s)

Evacuation of personnel from ships in distress.

Affiliation

UNSC Navy

The Class-3 Enclosed Heavy Lifeboat, Controlled, also known as the Bumblebee,^[2] is a standard escape pod for the UNSC. It is 10.5 meters long, making it longer than a Scorpion.^[3] It 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.^[4]

Most UNSC Ships carry several sets of these, stationed at airlocks. Like Pelican dropships, each has a call sign, usually consisting of three letters from the Phonetic Alphabet, followed by a two-digit number.

Features[]

Bumblebee lifepods were designed to ferry up to nine people at a time. They have one pilot seat as well as eight side-facing crash seats, all of which have harnesses to protect the occupants from injury when crash-landing. The effectiveness of the safety features on the Bumblebee vary greatly, as can their reliability. Some of the Bumblebees featured in Halo landed without any injuries, while a lot suffered catastrophic failures while in midair, resulting in the deaths of all or most aboard upon impact. Most of the lifeboats seen had several Marines who apparently did not survive the descent to Installation 04.

Bumblebees had little in the way of maneuverability. They feature thrusters and air-brakes to slow down during descent, but they can not reach escape velocity and leave a planet's atmosphere on their own. Also, 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 18+ bumblebee pods. 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 only makes an appearance in the levels "Halo" and in "The Pillar of Autumn."
The Bumblebee can not actually be driven because it is an escape pod and can only steer.
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.^[4]
If you look closely, you can see that when John-117's escape pod launches, it still has its rear hatch open.
It is possible that 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 500 kilograms,^[7] 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.
The name "Bumblebee" may have been given because of the nature of the craft. When the craft hits the surface it will most likely not be able to function again, very much like how once a bee has used its stinger it will die. Also the drag flaps slightly resemble the wings of a real bumblebee.
Though Marines in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary are extremely similar to their Halo: Reach counterparts, the Bumblebee pilot wears Marine armor from Halo 3.