The transpolar flight of the Norge

Umberto Nobile · 1926 CE · Earth

Fly from Svalbard across the North Pole to Alaska and see whether any land lies in the unexplored polar basin.

Historical context

By 1926 nobody could say what lay in the million square kilometres of Arctic Ocean between Svalbard and Alaska: some geographers still expected a continent. Amundsen had failed to fly it in flying boats the year before, so he bought an Italian semi-rigid airship and its designer, and the three-nation crew that resulted made the crossing and the quarrel that followed equally famous.

The voyage, step by step

1. Away from the mooring mast

   11 May 1926

   On 11 May 1926 the Norge slips her mooring mast at Ny-Ålesund on Svalbard, sixteen men and a dog aboard, bound for a pole no aircraft has yet reached.

2. Into the blank on the chart

   1926 CE

   North of Svalbard the pack ice closes into an unbroken white plain, and the crew keep watch for the land some geographers still expect between the pole and Alaska.

3. Three flags over the pole

   12 May 1926

   Just after midnight on 12 May the Norge circles the North Pole, and Amundsen, Ellsworth and Nobile each drop a flag onto the ice below.

4. Ice fog over the Beaufort Sea

   1926 CE

   South of the pole the airship runs into a dense, freezing fog over the Beaufort Sea that coats the envelope in ice and hides the coast for hours.

5. The coast at Wainwright

   1926 CE

   The fog lifts long enough for the crew to fix their position off the Iñupiat village of Wainwright, the first land sighted since Svalbard.

6. Following the whaling coast

   1926 CE

   Low on fuel and still fighting fog, the Norge follows the Iñupiat coast southwest, past Point Hope, looking for a place to bring the airship down.

7. Down at Teller

   14 May 1926

   After seventy-two hours in the air the Norge comes down on the ice near the small Iñupiat village of Teller on 14 May 1926, ending the first flight across the Arctic Ocean.

Outcome

Crossed 5,456 km of ice in 72 hours, sighted no land, and landed at Teller in Alaska on 14 May 1926.

Umberto Nobile

Italian aeronautical engineer who designed and piloted the airship Norge across the Arctic Ocean and the North Pole in 1926.

Read on Wikipedia

Sources

• Umberto Nobile — Wikipedia
• Norge (airship) — Wikipedia
• My Polar Flights: An Account of the Voyages of the Airships Italia and NorgeUmberto Nobile · Frederick Muller · 1961
• First Crossing of the Polar SeaRoald Amundsen and Lincoln Ellsworth · George H. Doran · 1927

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