Airship Norge and the first trans-artic flight
On April 10th, 1926, airship NORGE departed Rome towards the North Pole. It flew over it on May 12th and safely landed in Teller, Alaska, on May 14th, after having successfully accomplished its mission.
The NORGE had been built in Italy but was operated in Norway since a few months earlier, when it had been acquired by the Aeroclub of Norway.
The “Amundsen-Ellsworth-Nobile Transpolar Flight” had been rapidly organized since the agreement between Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and Italian engineer Umberto Nobile in summer 1925. Amundsen was a celebrity after having been the first explorer to reach the South Pole in 1911 and after having completed several other record-breaking endeavors. The third leader of the 1926 expedition, American tycoon Lincoln Ellsworth was later to become himself a famous figure in exploration but in his debut with this flight, he was essentially providing financial support.
The NORGE reached its starting base in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard islands, after a journey through Europe which was itself a major achievement for an airship of its size. Its long route through the Pole to Alaska was the first successful air connection between Europe and America through a trans-artic flight.
We wish to rememeber that expedition and the men who made it possible.