Zeppelin
From Srafopedia
Zeppelins are essentially hydrogen balloons that have a cabin on the underside. They were most commonly used as warcraft by the Germans in the First World War, although inherently flammable and dangerous to fly. The cabin invariably has two propellor engines mounted either side and towards the rear to provide forward thrust for the zeppelin, and each is rotatable to allow the thing to turn. In Our World, the first Zeppelin was built by the german count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, hence the name. The zeppelin was abandoned in the late thirties, however, due to the Hindenburg disaster, in which the most expensive aircraft of the time, the zeppelin Hindenburg, infamously caught alight whilst attempting to land, and was destroyed by fire in minutes due to the extreme flammability of the hydrogen in its gasbag.
Relevance in His Dark Materials
Zeppelins are the most common form of air-transport available in the world of His Dark Materials. There are no mentions of the planes of our world, and the only other flying aircraft that is mentioned is King Ogunwe's Gyropter squadrons. The docking place for zeppelins is called aërodock.
