Umberto Nobile
BOOK:
Disaster at the Pole : The Tragedy of the Airship Italia and the 1928 Nobile Expedition to the North Pole
He was on born on Jan. 21, 1885, in Lauro, Italy (near Salerno), Avellino's district and died July 30, 1978,in Rome. He was an Italian aeronautical engineer and pioneer in Arctic aviation who in 1926, with the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) and Lincoln Ellsworth of the United States flew over the North Pole in the dirigible Norge, from Spitsbergen (now Svalbard), north of Norway, to Alaska. In short, completing the flight from Europe to North America. (Britannica Online)
In 1928 Roald Amundsen was Killed in an airplane crash in the Arctic
while engage in search for Nobile. They flew Semi-rigid airships which were more poplular earlier this century. They usually comprise a rigid lower keel construction and a pressurized envelope above that. The rigid keel can be attached directly to the envelope or hung underneath it. The airships of Brazilian aeronaut Alberto Santos-Dumont were semi-rigids. One of the most famous representants of the type was Italia, the airship which General Umberto Nobile used on his attempt to reach the North Pole. REFERENCE
My Five Years With Soviet Airships, Umberto Nobile. 1987. 1 of 500 copies, 153pp., pictorial boards, as new. $30. Material pertaining to Lighter-Than-Air flight and pre-WWI aviation.
Other Links
Contact Carmine Nobile of VA, an ancestor of Umberto Nobile
his e-mail address is: goodman@ezdial.com
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