44 AIR CLASSICS/August 2022
in Russia, Nobile announced the airship
would stay in the hangar for a week as
engine overhauls were undertaken and
collapsible rubber boats were installed on
the interior.
There were more postponements and
the airship did not leave Leningrad until
the morning of 5 May and headed to
Vadso in northern Norway. However, on
29 April the American ship Chantier had
arrived at Kings Bay with Richard Byrd’s
expedition, which also planned to fly to
the North Pole. Amundsen emphasized
to the press that there was no question
of a competition. Byrd’s objective was
to fly to the North Pole but, at that time,
explorers Frederick Cook (1908) and
Robert E. Peary (1909) both claimed to
have reached that Pole first — a point
of great contention. Amundsen said his
expedition was to fly over the entire Arctic
Ocean to search for any land that might
be in the so-far-uncharted area. Byrd had
a Fokker tri-motor named Josephine Ford
after the daughter of sponsor Edsel Ford.
At 0150 on 9 May, the Fokker left
Kings Bay for the North Pole with Byrd
and pilot Floyd Bennett aboard. They
apparently arrived at the Pole just after
0900 and were back in Ny-Alesund about
1700 hours. This would give an average
speed of 100-mph for the 500-mile flight.
However, the flight raised more questions
than it answered and a large contingent
refused to go along with Byrd’s claim of
being the first to overfly the North Pole.
Norge departed Kings Bay on 11 May
at 0955. There was limited space on the
airship but 16 men were aboard including
Roald Amundsen and pilots Umberto
Nobile and Hjalmar Riser-Larsen with
Lincoln Ellsworth serving as navigator.
Ellsworth would later write, “The keel of
the Norge looked like a flying storehouse
when all was ready for the start on the
morning. The equipment included
tents, sleeping bags, skis, snow shoes for
those that could not ski, rifles, shot guns,
ammunition, a hand sleigh [the finest
piece of workmanship I ever saw — made
by Oskar Wisting when he sailed on the
Maud expedition], and a canvas boat.”
As they closed on the last hundred
miles to the North Pole, a wall of solid fog
rose to greet them. Nobile ordered the
ship to climb to 3000-feet. It was freezing
cold but they needed a clear view. This far
north, the magnetic compasses becamelate the same day but because of bad
weather it was not moored in the station’s
hangar until the evening. Weather and
wind continued to plague the journey
but on 12 April, Norge left Pulham for
the long flight to Oslo. On 15 April,
the airship headed for a mooring near
Leningrad following a 17-hour flight in
which the crew ran into dense fog. Once14 tons and was 130 feet in height.
Also during March, 4800 cylinders of
hydrogen arrived aboard two large cargo
ships. Ellsworth and Amundsen arrived
on the second ship and began to organize
the last preparations.
Strong winds delayed the departure
of Norge from Rome until the morning
10 April and arrived at RNAS Pulham
(continued on page 97)Norge would prove to be remarkably reliable. However, ice “bullets” thrown from the
propellers would puncture the fabric and this called for crewmen to run back and forth on
the keel to install rubber patches with cement.
Norge arriving at Teller. The fact the airship touched down at this remote location rather
than Nome caused a great deal of ill-will among the Nome citizens who had prepared
elaborate arrival ceremonies. Also waiting at Nome were some of the many creditors to
whom Amundsen owed money.
The hangar gave the airship reasonable protection from the extremely harsh weather.
Unfortunately, during the 1930s it would collapse under the weight of ice and snow.