Zeppelin

A zeppelin is a type of rigid airship, using lighter-than-air gases. Originally pioneered by the German Count von Zeppelin in the late 1800s, zeppelins entered service as the first commercial airlines prior to World War I. Civilian zeppelins became more popular in the 1920s and the 1930s, including transatlantic passenger travel. Despite the sensational Hindenburg disaster, commercial and military zeppelin use continued.

History[]

In 1900, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin invented zeppelins. Unfortunately, the 1937 Hindenburg incident doomed the technology the zeppelin posed, but while highly unlikely to board a zeppelin nowadays for travels, some people still board them for occasional academic research and tourist excursions.^[1]

Indiana Jones encountered and rode on several zeppelins during his adventures, including:

an imperial German military zeppelin which bombed London in May 1916. Jones was riding aboard Vicky Prentiss's bus and she helped him to seek shelter away from the bus in case it got hit by a zeppelin bomb.^[2]
an imperial German military zeppelin which bombed Paris in February 1917. Jones was writing a letter Thomas Edward Lawrence when it attacked.^[3]
an armed imperial German Prototype Zeppelin during World War I which, as a spy, Jones destroyed to undermine the German war effort.^[4]
a Nazi military zeppelin used by Colonel Albrecht Von Beck to transport Jones form Prague, through Belgrade, to Istanbul in 1935.^[5]
an unnamed Japanese zeppelin, used to move a frozen dragon from Nepal to Japan in 1936.^[6]

A zeppelin in Vatican City
Z-30, a zeppelin requisitioned by Emmerich Voss to travel between Vatican City and Giza in 1937.^[7]
D-138, a commercial zeppelin operated by Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei, which also operated the Hindenburg. Using aliases, Jones and his father took a flight from Berlin to Athens in 1938, but ended up stealing a German biplane to continue their journey.^[8]
some small Nazi military zeppelins sent to support the larger D-LZ 127 in South America.^[9]
D-LZ 127, a large Nazi military zeppelin sent to South America to recover Mayan relics in 1939.^[9]
Odin (Registration: D-L276), a double-hulled large Nazi military zeppelin commanded by Magnus Völler in his search for the Staff of Kings in 1939.^[10]

Behind the scenes[]

Indy Von Beck's Zeppelin — Von Beck's Zeppelin flying to Istanbul

In the real world, the Hindenberg disaster effectively killed the commercial passenger zeppelin industry, though in the Indiana Jones world, zeppelin travel continued and German zeppelins even started carrying planes, an innovation borrowed from US military airships, the USS Akron and USS Macon.^[11]

Appearances[]

Non-canonical appearances[]

Sources[]

Notes and references[]

External links[]

Zeppelin on Wikipedia

[1] The Indiana Jones Handbook

[2] The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "London, May 1916" → Love's Sweet Song

[3] Young Indiana Jones and the Attack of the Hawkmen

[4] Instruments of Chaos starring Young Indiana Jones

[5] Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb

[6] The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones – "Dragon by the Tail!!"

[7] Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

[8] Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

[:0-9] 9.0 ^9.1 Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings Wii version

[10] Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings

[11] Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]