Heinkel 111

The Heinkel 111 is a German airliner and bomber. At first it was used as solely a commercial aircraft but later it became a heavy bomber. The aircraft was used throughout World War II in Europe as a bomber until 1943, when a loss of air superiority resulted in it being relegated to a troop and cargo transport.

History[]

Background[]

At some point during World War II, Jürgen Voller had a Heinkel stored at an airfield in Sicily, ready for future use.^[1]

Fateful flight[]

On August 18, 1969, Jürgen Voller and his Neo-Nazi associates and a captured Indiana Jones boarded the plane after it was prepared for takeoff. Whilst the plane was on the runway, Helena Shaw ,who was on a motorbike, managed to successfully climb onto the plane's landing gear. The plane took off and then headed into fissure in time located by the Antikythera. After this, the aircraft briefly lost control but the pilots were able to restart the engines.^[1]

Heinkel triremes — The damaged Heinkel flies over a fleet of Roman triremes.

While on the plane, Voller believed they had successfully flown to Sicily in 1939. However, Jones realized that Voller failed to take continental drift into consideration and recognized that they had instead ended up in 214 BC during the Siege of Syracuse. Eventually, one of aircraft's engines was damaged by a large spear launched by the Romans, as they mistook the alien craft for a dragon. Subsequently, multiple other spears were thrown at the plane including ones that killed a Nazi soldier at the plane's door and one on the pilots. Klaber who was also on the aircraft took control of an MG-15 machine gun and opened fire at various attacking Romans from the plane's windshield.^[1]

Helena Shaw, who had climbed up the wheel well and somehow got through the inboard gas tanks, was able to drop several Nazis out of the aircraft via the bomb bay doors. Later, Jones and Shaw were able to find a solitary parachute. Voller attempted to escape himself but this threat was overcome when Shaw shot him, thus allowing Jones and Shaw to jump to safety. Due to the damage sustained, the plane was unable to leave via the portal and the remaining pilot, unable to regain control, was killed with Voller and Klaber when the plane crashed with a fiery explosion in Syracuse.^[1]

Heinkel crash site — Heinkel's wreckage.

After the crash, Archimedes arrived and found Voller and Klaber's bodies having been thrown out of the plane and seriously burned, where he recovered Voller's wristwatch along with the Antikythera, a device he had not yet completed his invention of.^[1]

Legacy[]

After Archimedes' death later in 212 BC,^[2] he was placed in a tomb in Sicily. Its sarcophagus had a relief depicting the Heinkel, reimagined as a phoenix with propellers. The Heinkel's presence in the battle was passed down by generations to the point it got reimagined as a dragon attacking the Romans by some local Syracusans, who retold the Heinkel's last flight in a puppet show when Jones, Shaw and Teddy Kumar visited the city in 1969.^[1]

Occupants/Passengers[]

Behind the scenes[]

The Heinkel seen in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is embellished for the movie where it possesses a non-standard twin tail fin configuration where real He-111s utilized a single tail fin. Jürgen Voller's aircraft was armed with an MG-15 machine gun.^[1] Although it had the historically accurate Luftwaffe insignia on the wings (the Balkenkreuz), the body of the plane was also decorated with the KG 54 Totenkopf insignia.