Shadow of NORGE
Documents

Documents

Documents

Documents, photographs and bibliography, unless otherwise specified, are courtesy of the Centro Documentazione Umberto Nobile – Museo Storico Aeronautica Militare (Vigna di Valle), Museo Umberto Nobile (Lauro), upon digitization and processing by project “Polar Memory” (Italy’s National Research Council), edited by Alessia Glielmi.

(Captions by Gianluca Casagrande)

Technical drawings of the NORGE in the configuration for the “Amundsen-Ellsworth-Nobile Transpolar Flight” (Courtesy: Centro Documentazione Umberto Nobile, Italian Air Force Museum, Vigna di Valle, Italy)..
Airship N1 during reconfiguration works at Ciampino, in early 1926. The steel-aluminum keel has been stripped of the normal fabric cloth cover and several details of the semi-rigid structure and the envelope, along with the fuel tanks are visible. The new control car is nearing completion. The three engine cars will be re-installed at a later time. Not yet re-christened NORGE, the airship bears the simple name “N1” on the bow and the Italian aeronautic registration I-SAAN on the side (Image courtesy of Centro Documentazione Umberto Nobile, Italian Air Force Museum, Vigna di Valle, Italy).
The N1, reconfigured for the polar flight, stands on the ground at Ciampino airfield during the testing period in the early months of 1926. Two men are visible on the catwalks connecting the left engine car to the airship keel (Courtesy of Centro Documentazione Umberto Nobile, Museo Storico Aeronautica Militare, Vigna di Valle, Italy)
Interior of the control car of the NORGE. The airship had been reworked to drastically reduce weight and eliminate all the non essential elements. The control car was, in practice, a cage made of welded steel tubes. The walls were a mere fabric cover, the windows were closed by a thin film of celluloid. The rudder of the airship was controlled by wheel no. 5, the elevators were actuated through wheel no. 9. No. 2 indicates the engine telegraphs, whose three levers moved corresponding signals in each one of the three engine cars, instructing the engineer inside about the manoeuvres to conduct. N. 12 indicates the controls which would open the gas chamber valves to release hydrogen (Courtesy of the Centro Documentazione Umberto Nobile, Museo Storico Aeronautica Militare, Vigna di Valle, Italy)
A page of the document edited in summer 1925 by the Stabilimento Costruzioni Aeronautiche with notes for the construction of a temporary hangar to be built at Kings Bay with timber and sailcloth. The building was supposed to shelter the NORGE during its last stop-over on its way to the North Pole. The hangar was designed by Italian engineer Felice Trojani and was built by Norwegian personnel, during the months of Arctic winter, in constant darkness and temperature as low as -35°C, under direction by engineer Joh Höver and master carpenter Ferdinand Arild. Building materials had been transported there before the ice would block the arrival of freighter ships.
Designation of the Italian members of the NORGE’s crew by Umberto Nobile in his function of Director of the “Stabilimento Costruzioni Aeronautiche” in Rome, February 23rd, 1926 (Courtesy Museo Umberto Nobile, Lauro, Italy). The text in Italian reads: “To the Ministry of the Air Force: I have the honour of communicating that I proceeded to designate the Italian crew of airship ‘N1’ for the transpolar flight, in the following composition subject to approval from this hon. Ministry: First Chief Technician, CECIONI Natale – chief engineer. Chief ARDUINO Ettore – engineer. Sarg. CARATTI Attilio – engineer. Sarg. BELLAGAMBA Luigi – engineer. Worker ALESSANDRINI Renato – rigger; Chief LIPPI Dante – backup rigger. Sarg. MARAGLIO Giacomo, backup engineer.”
Functional diagram of the experimental electrically warmed cloths for the polar flight. (Courtesy Museo Umberto Nobile, Lauro). The text in Italian reads: “In the control car there are two plugs A and B. A is used to distribute power, respectively, in the gloves, in the waistband, in the shoe insoles through the respective [2 pins] plugs C-C’, D, E-E’. Plug B is exclusively reserved for powering the F chest roll-on. With a tension of 12 Volts, the chest roll-on absorbs 2 Ampéres, the waistband 3 Ampéres, the gloves 2 Ampéres, the insoles 2 Ampéres”.
Copy of the telegram sent by Nobile to Italy’s Ministry of the Air Force about the arrival in Pulham, first stop-over in the route towards Svalbard, April 12, 1926 (Courtesy: Museo Umberto Nobile, Lauro). The text in Italian reads: “Arrived over Pulham at 16.00 hours, landed at 17.50 airship in perfect order – We have covered 2,200 kilometers in 32 hours despite headwind over the Tyrrenian [sea] and in the route Rochefort-London where for some hours I was necessitated to keep three engines 1200 RPM with airspeed over 100 kilometers hour during entire navigation lasted 32 hours airship behaviour excellent – NOBILE”
May 7, 1926. The NORGE lands at Ny-Ålesund, Kings Bay, Spitsbergen Island, Svalbard archipelago. (Courtesy of Centro Documentazione Umberto Nobile, Italian Air Force Museum, Vigna di Valle, Italy)
Telegram sent by Umberto Nobile to the Stabilimento Costruzioni Aeronautiche (Rome), after the successful landing at Kings Bay (Ny-Ålesund). (Courtesy Museo Umberto Nobile, Lauro, Italy). The text in Italian reads: “Let the crew’s families know everybody is very well – NOBILE”
Ciampino, March 29th, 1926, the NORGE is handed over from the Italian government to the Aeroclub of Norway in a ceremony personally attended by Benito Mussolini, shown here with high officials of the Royal Italian Air Force and Umberto Nobile (to his left). (Fonte: Museo Storico Aeronautica Militare Vigna di Valle)
Hjalmar Riiser Larsen (left) and Umberto Nobile (right) say goodbye from the control car of the airship right before departure from Rome. (Fonte: Museo Storico Aeronautica Militare Vigna di Valle)
NORGE’s commander Umberto Nobile with Soviet personnel after the airship’s arrival in Gattschina. (Fonte: Museo Storico Aeronautica Militare Vigna di Valle)
The NORGE flying over Leningrad (Fonte: Museo Storico Aeronautica Militare Vigna di Valle)
The NORGE is refilled with hydrogen and refuelled during its brief stop-over at Vadsø’s mooring mast (Fonte: Museo Storico Aeronautica Militare Vigna di Valle)
The NORGE in Vadsø (Fonte: Museo Storico Aeronautica Militare Vigna di Valle)
The NORGE inside the so called “hangar” (in fact, a wind shelter) at Ny-Ålesund, Spitsbergen, Svalbard Islands. The buildings in the background are more or less in the position of present-day scientific research station (Courtesy: Centro Documentazione Umberto Nobile, Italian Air Force Museum, Vigna di Valle, Italy)
A close-up view of the nose of the NORGE in the Ny-Ålesund hangar makes it possible to observe the hatch on top of the bow open and the safety-line which allowed to inspect the top of the airship even during the flight. A person, presumably rigger Renato Alessandrini, appears to be sitting on the side of the envelope (Courtesy of Centro Documentazione Umberto Nobile, Italian Air Force Museum, Vigna di Valle, Italy)
Ny-Ålesund. The NORGE is pulled out of the hangar by the ground-crew for the transpolar flight, May 11, 1926 (Courtesy of Centro Documentazione Umberto Nobile, Italian Air Force Museum, Vigna di Valle, Italy)
Umberto Nobile (left) and journalist Fredrik Ramm immediately before departure from Ny-Ålesund to the North Pole (Fonte: Museo Storico Aeronautica Militare, Vigna di Valle)
NORGE departs Ny-Ålesund. The rudder is apparently handled by Horgen, barely visible through the front windows. Nobile and Riiser-Larsen monitor the manoeuvre from the open door, Ramm (?) and Gottwaldt watch from the rear window. (Fonte: Museo Storico Aeronautica Militare Vigna di Valle)
The NORGE departs Kings Bay enroute for the North Pole (Courtesy of Centro Documentazione Umberto Nobile, Italian Air Force Museum, Vigna di Valle, Italy)
The NORGE deflating on the beach at Teller after the arrival in Alaska, May 14th, 1926 (Courtesy of Centro Documentazione Umberto Nobile, Italian Air Force Museum, Vigna di Valle, Italy)
Umberto Nobile poses in the dismantled control car of the NORGE holding the expedition’s mascot, small dog Titina, whom he had found and adopted one day in Rome during 1925. Titina flew the entire journey of the NORGE and two years later was to share, with some other fellows, the ordeal of the ITALIA expedition (Courtesy of Centro Documentazione Umberto Nobile, Italian Air Force Museum, Vigna di Valle, Italy)
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