Airship Norge Flies Over the North Pole

In May 1926, the airship Norge flew from Svalbard across the North Pole and on to Alaska, carrying an international crew led by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, the American backer Lincoln Ellsworth, and the Italian designer and pilot Umberto Nobile. It is widely regarded as the first undisputed crossing of the Arctic Ocean by air, and the first expedition whose flight over the Pole is not seriously contested. It also marked a turning point between the heroic age of polar exploration and the age of aviation.

The expedition grew out of earlier attempts. Amundsen and Ellsworth had tried to reach the Pole by seaplane in 1925, getting close to the 88th parallel before being forced down on the ice, and they escaped only after days of hard labor to build a runway and take off. Airships promised longer range and greater safety. Amundsen turned to Nobile, whose semi-rigid airships had a good reputation, and bought one of his designs, the N-1, which was renamed Norge. Funding came from Ellsworth, who had a wealthy family, and from the Aero Club of Norway. Italian and Norwegian involvement gave the project a strongly national flavor on both sides.

The Norge left Rome, traveled north by way of stops in Europe, and reached Kings Bay on Svalbard, where the crew prepared for the polar leg. It set out in the second week of May 1926 and reached the North Pole on the 12th, according to the usual accounts. The crew dropped the flags of Norway, the United States and Italy onto the ice. The Arctic stretch was difficult: fog, ice forming on the hull and propellers, and compass problems made navigation hard. After roughly two days in the air, the airship landed in poor weather near Teller, Alaska, rather than at its intended destination of Nome. The ship was later dismantled.

Success brought quarrels as well as fame. Disputes soon broke out between Amundsen and Nobile over credit, with Nobile feeling his role as pilot and designer was undervalued. Nobile went on to lead his own airship expedition in 1928 with the Italia, which crashed on the ice on its return from the Pole. Amundsen died in June 1928 while flying to help in the search for survivors, and his aircraft was never found.

The Norge flight showed that long-distance Arctic travel by air was feasible, and it helped inspire later polar aviation. It also remains tied to the earlier controversies over Robert Peary's and Frederick Cook's polar claims, since the Norge's crossing is often cited as the first one backed by solid evidence. Historians still debate the credit among its leaders, but its significance as an engineering and exploring feat is not in doubt.