D-138
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.
Indiana Jones encountered and rode on several zeppelins during his adventures, including:
- a 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.
- a prototype armed zeppelin during World War I which, as a spy, Jones destroyed to undermime the German war effort.
- an unnamed Japanese zeppelin, used to move a frozen dragon from Nepal to Japan in 1936.
- 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.
- Odin, a double-hulled Nazi military zeppelin commanded by Magnus Völler in his search for the Staff of Kings in 1939.
Behind the scenes
In the real world, the Hindenberg disaster effectively killed the commercial passenger zeppelin industry, though in the world of Indiana Jones, zeppelin travel continued, and German zeppelins even started carrying planes, an innovation borrowed from US military airships, the USS Akron and USS Macon.[1]
Appearances
- The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "London, May 1916" → Love's Sweet Song
- Instruments of Chaos starring Young Indiana Jones
The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones – "Dragon by the Tail!!"- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
- Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings
