Kiefer's intense preoccupation with history and mythology is also reflected in the series of different airplane sculptures made of lead. The artist titled the series "The Argonauts" and thus refers to the famous Argonaut myth and the hero Jason. The protagonist, together with an illustrious group of heroes sets out with the transcendental speed ship "Argo" to bring back the "Golden Fleece" to Thessaly.
Kiefer has repeatedly and intensively reworked the widely ramified and fascinating myth of Jason in many of his works: "What apples were for Cézanne, the story of the Argonauts is for me," Kiefer once said. Emphasizing the militant symbolism of the saga, Jason's ship in Kiefer's work becomes a warplane, another leitmotif in Kiefer's artistic output. The plane is made of heavy, archaic lead, the metal par excellence characteristic of Kiefer. This actually renders it incapable of flight, but it gains significance in the context of Kiefer's iconography of works and opens up new levels of interpretation that go beyond the saga of the Argonauts.