Yet within a decade, Amundsen would be dead, swallowed by the Arctic, and the airship era pretty much over – or so it seemed.Īirlander is an airship for the 21st century.
It’s not hard to imagine the sense of exhilaration and accomplishment the crew must have felt the moment they set foot in North America. Far from calling the expedition over, the Norge then pushed forward across the Arctic Ocean until it touched down in Teller, Alaska, a couple of days later. The Norge arrived at the North Pole less than a day after departing Ny-Ålesund, making those on board the first people to have ever verifiably reached that geographical landmark. The party, however, would have to content themselves with flying over the North Pole rather than setting foot on it. If Amundsen’s earlier conquest of the South Pole had involved a months-long, grueling march on dog-sleds, this new expedition would be a much shorter affair.
Leading the 16-strong expedition are none other than the most celebrated polar explorer of the time, the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, who in 1911 became the first man to reach the South Pole, Umberto Nobile, the celebrated Italian airship engineer who designed the Norge, and American coal heir and adventurer Lincoln Ellsworth. This cluster of rocky, barren islands, closer to the North Pole than to the Norwegian mainland, is the natural jump-off point for any expeditions venturing into the frozen expanses of the Arctic and this is precisely what those on board the Norge have set to do. It’s May 11, 1926, and a giant airship, the Norge (meaning Norway), has just been unhooked from its mast at one of the world’s most remote settlements, Ny-Ålesund, in the Svalbard archipelago.
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