Dismantled at Teller, Alaska, for transport to Europe. Never flown again.
The Norge was a semi-rigid Italian-built airship that carried out the first verified trip of any kind to the North Pole, an overflight on 12 May 1926. It was also the first aircraft to fly over the polar ice cap between Europe and America. The expedition was the brainchild of polar explorer and expedition leader Roald Amundsen, the airship's designer and pilot Umberto Nobile and the wealthy American adventurer and explorer Lincoln Ellsworth who, along with the Norwegian Aviation Society (Norwegian: Norsk Luftseiladsforening), financed the trip, which was known as the Amundsen-Ellsworth 1926 Transpolar Flight.
Norge was the first N-class semi-rigid airship designed by Italian aeronautical engineer Umberto Nobile and its construction began in 1923. As part of the sales contract to the Aviation Society, the airship was refitted for Arctic conditions. The pressurised envelope was reinforced with metal frames at the nose and tail, with a flexible tubular metal keel connecting the two. This was covered with fabric and used as storage and crew space. Three engine gondolas and the separate control cabin were attached to the bottom of the keel. Norge was the first Italian semi-rigid to be fitted with the cruciform tail fins first developed by the Schütte-Lanz company.[citation needed]
On 15 April 1924, the N-1 was carried away from its base at Ciampino aerodrome by a violent wind gust. Two soldiers and a mechanic, who were unable to let go from the mooring lines, were carried 300 feet and dashed to death.[1]
Polar expedition
In 1925, Amundsen telegraphed Nobile asking to meet him at Oslo, where he proposed an airship trip across the Arctic. With a contract in place, Nobile modified the already completed N-1 for flight in arctic weather.[2] As the expedition was being financed by the Norwegian Aviation Society, the refitted N-1 was christened the Norge (English: Norway).[2]
Norge on take off at Ciampino Airport
On 29 March 1926, at a ceremony at Ciampino aerodrome the Norge was handed over to the Norwegian Aviation Society.[3] The flight north was due to leave Rome on 6 April but was delayed due to strong winds and departed at 09:25 on 10 April. The ship arrived at RNAS Pulham Airship Station in England at 15:20; because of the bad weather was not moored in the hangar until 18:30.[4] Delayed again by weather, the Norge left Pulham for Oslo at 11:45 on 12 April.[5]
At 01:00 on 15 April 1926, the Norge left Ekeberg in Oslo for Gatchina near Leningrad; after a 17-hour flight, the airship arrived at 19:30, delayed by dense fog along the way.[6] Following the arrival at Gatchina, Nobile announced that the Norge would remain in the airship shed for a week for engine overhaul and maintenance; this included the addition of collapsible rubber boats for emergency use.[7][8] Although scheduled to leave Gatchina as soon as the weather allowed after 24 April, the departure was delayed another week as the mooring mast at King's Bay, Spitsbergen had not yet been completed due to adverse weather.[9] Although Nobile was anxious to leave for Spitsbergen even if the mast and shed were not completed as he was concerned about the weather, the departure from Gatchina was postponed once again.[10][11]
Mast in Ny-Ålesund
The Norge finally left Gatchina at 09:40 on the morning of 5 May to proceed to Vadsø in northern Norway, where the airship mast is still standing today. The expedition then crossed the Barents Sea to reach King's Bay at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard.[12] There Nobile met Richard Evelyn Byrd preparing his Fokker Trimotor for his North Pole attempt.[12] Nobile explained the Norge trip was to observe the uncharted sea between the Pole and Alaska where some believed land was; at the time he thought Robert Edwin Peary had already reached the pole.[12] This would be the dirigible's last stop before crossing the pole. The Norge departed Ny-Ålesund for the final stretch across the polar ice on the morning of 11 May, at 9:55.[13]
Mast in Vadsø
The 16-man expedition included Amundsen, the expedition leader and navigator; Nobile, the dirigible's designer and pilot; Lincoln Ellsworth, American outdoorsman and expedition sponsor, and polar explorer Oscar Wisting who served as helmsman. Other crew members were 1st Lt. Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen, navigator; 1st Lt. Emil Horgen, elevatorman; Capt. Birger Gottwaldt, radio expert, Dr Finn Malmgren of Uppsala University, meteorologist;[12]Fredrik Ramm, journalist; Frithjof Storm-Johnsen, radioman; Flying Lt. Oscar Omdal, flight engineer; Natale Cecioni, chief mechanic; Renato Alessandrini, rigger; Ettore Arduino, Attilio Caratti and Vincenzo Pomella, mechanics. Nobile's little dog, Titina, who accompanied him everywhere, was also aboard as mascot.[12]
On 12 May at 01:25 (GMT), the Norge reached the North Pole, at which point the Norwegian, American and Italian flags were dropped from the airship onto the ice.[14] Relations between Amundsen and Nobile, which had been lukewarm at best, were aggravated by the freezing and noisy conditions in the dirigible's cramped, unheated control car and deteriorated further when Amundsen saw that the Italian flag dropped by Nobile was larger than either of the others. Amundsen later recalled with scorn that after he and Ellsworth had dropped the flags of their countries onto the ice, Nobile began tossing armfuls of different flags and banners overboard and the Norge had become "a circus wagon of the skies", an occurrence Nobile later claimed Amundsen had greatly exaggerated.[15]
After crossing the pole, the airship's propellers became encrusted with ice to such an extent that pieces breaking off were flung against the outer cover, causing several rips and tears in the fabric.
The ice forming on the propellers as we went through the fog, and hurled against the underside of the bag, had pretty well scarred up the fabric covering the keel, though it had not opened up the gas bags or caused any hydrogen loss. We had used up all our cement in repairing the fabric..."[12]
On 14 May, the Norge reached the Inupiat village of Teller, Alaska, where in view of worsening weather, the decision was made to land there rather than continue on to Nome, about 70 miles away.[12] The Norge was reportedly damaged somehow during the landing and was dismantled and shipped back to Italy for repairs and refurbishing that was never undertaken.
The three previous expeditions that claim to have reached the North Pole—led by Frederick Cook in 1908, Robert Peary in 1909, and Richard E. Byrd in 1926 (just a few days before the Norge)—are all disputed as being either highly inaccurate or totally false. Some of those disputing these earlier claims therefore consider the crew of the Norge to be the first verified explorers to have reached the North Pole.
Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
Umberto Nobile was an Italian aviator, aeronautical engineer and Arctic explorer.
Lincoln Ellsworth was a polar explorer from the United States and a major benefactor of the American Museum of Natural History.
Oscar Adolf Wisting was a Norwegian Naval officer and polar explorer. Together with Roald Amundsen he was the first person to reach both the North and South Poles.
Bernt Balchen was a Norwegian pioneer polar aviator, navigator, aircraft mechanical engineer and military leader. A Norwegian native, he later became an American citizen and was a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross.
The Italia was a semi-rigid airship belonging to the Italian Air Force. It was designed by Italian engineer and General Umberto Nobile who commanded the dirigible in his second series of flights around the North Pole. The Italia crashed in May 1928, with one confirmed fatality from the crash, one fatality from exposure while awaiting rescue, and six missing crew members who were trapped in the still-airborne envelope. At the end of the rescue operations there were a total of 17 dead and a number of survivors.
Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen was a Norwegian aviation pioneer, military officer, polar explorer and businessman. Among his achievements, he is generally regarded a founder of the Royal Norwegian Air Force.
Ny-Ålesund Airport, Hamnerabben is an airport serving the research community of Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard, Norway. The airport is owned by Kings Bay, who also owns the company town. The only flights available are to Svalbard Airport, Longyear, operated two to four times a week by Lufttransport using Dornier 228 aircraft. The services are organized as corporate charters and tickets are only available after permission from Kings Bay.
The America was a non-rigid airship built by Louis Mutin Godard in France in 1906 for the journalist Walter Wellman's attempt to reach the North Pole by air. Wellman first conceived of using a balloon to fly to the pole during a failed polar attempt by boat and sledge from Svalbard in 1894. He then visited Paris to review the state of balloon technology but left disappointed by the lack of acceptable steering and propulsion capability. A decade later while at the 1905 Portsmouth Peace Conference he learned of recent innovations in French dirigible design and believed a solution might be at hand for his Arctic aerial plan. After receiving the backing of newspaper publisher Victor F. Lawson, the Wellman Chicago Record-Herald Polar Expedition was announced, and Wellman traveled to Paris in search of a suitable design and manufacturer. In the meantime a public company was established to raise the $US 250,000 required for the expedition and airship.
A semi-rigid airship is an airship which has a stiff keel or truss supporting the main envelope along its length. The keel may be partially flexible or articulated and may be located inside or outside the main envelope. The outer shape of the airship is maintained by gas pressure, as with the non-rigid "blimp". Semi-rigid dirigibles were built in significant quantity from the late 19th century but in the late 1930s they fell out of favour along with rigid airships. No more were constructed until the semi-rigid design was revived by the Zeppelin NT in 1997.
Farthest North describes the most northerly latitude reached by explorers, before the first successful expedition to the North Pole rendered the expression obsolete. The Arctic polar regions are much more accessible than those of the Antarctic, as continental land masses extend to high latitudes and sea voyages to the regions are relatively short.
Finn Adolf Erik Johan Malmgren was a Swedish meteorologist and Arctic explorer.
Pavel Golovin was a Soviet polar aviation pilot and colonel.
Leif Dietrichson was a Norwegian military officer and aviation pioneer. He is most famous for joining Roald Amundsen and Lincoln Ellsworth in the 1925 North Pole Expedition. In 1928, Dietrichson disappeared with Amundsen and four others as they were looking for the expedition of Umberto Nobile.
The Spitsbergen Airship Museum is a museum located on the island of Spitsbergen in Longyearbyen, the capital of the Arctic Ocean archipelago Svalbard. It has been formally renamed as the North Pole Expedition Museum. It was co-founded by the Italian Stefano Poli and the Norwegian Ingunn Løyning. Plans to open the museum began in 2005. Originally a new building was supposed to be built to house the museum, but following a fallout with one of the share-owners in 2007 this idea was scrapped, and instead the Airship Museum was opened in 2008 in Longyearbyen's former pig farm, which previously had housed the Svalbard Museum as well.
The Norge Storage Site is a historic building in the small native city of Teller, Alaska. It is a two-story wood frame building with a false front, and a small single-story addition to the east. The building's notability lies with its association with the groundbreaking voyage of the dirigible Norge, which overflew the North Pole on May 11, 1926. Commanded by the explorer Roald Amundsen and its Italian maker, Umberto Nobile, the airship flew from Spitsbergen, Norway on May 10, and made for Nome after crossing the pole. Frustrated by fog and bad weather, the ship was landed instead at Teller, about 72 miles (116 km) from Nome, landing on Front Avenue near this building. The airship was dismantled and stored here until a freighter could be sent to recover it.
Felice Trojani was an Italian airship and airplane engineer.
Renato Alessandrini was an Italian explorer who perished during the polar expedition of the airship Italia.
↑ Kumpch 1996. Amundsen wrote in his notebook that at 02:20 in the morning they were at the North Pole, 200 metres high with a temperature of −11°C (12°F).
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