thumb|Umberto Nobile (1926)

'''Umberto Nobile''' (Italian aeronautical engineer and Arctic explorer. Nobile was a developer and promoter of ''Norge'', which may have been the first aircraft to reach the North Pole, and which was indisputably the first to fly across the polar ice cap from Europe to America.  Nobile also designed and flew the ''Italia,'' a second polar airship; this second expedition ended in a deadly crash and provoked an international rescue effort.

==Early career==
Born in  Lauro, in the southern Italian province of Avellino, Nobile graduated from the University of Naples with degrees in both electrical and industrial engineering. In 1906 he began working for the Italian state railways, where he worked on electrification of the rail system. In 1911 his interests turned to the field of aeronautical engineering, and he enrolled in a one-year course offered by the Italian Army.  Nobile had always been fascinated by the work of airship pioneers such as Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin. When Italy entered World War I in 1915, the then 29-year-old attempted three times to enlist, but was rejected as physically unfit for service. 

Commissioned in the Italian air force, Nobile spent the war overseeing airship construction and developing new designs.  The Italian military had already used airships as early as 1912, during the Italo-Turkish War, for bombing and reconnaissance.  Italy built about 20 M-class semi-rigid airships with a bomb load of 1000&nbsp;kg which it used for bombing and anti-shipping missions. The Italians also used other, smaller airships, some of them British-built.  None of Nobile's designs flew until after the war.

In July non-rigid and rigid designs. The company's first project was the Airship T-34, which was designed for a trans-Atlantic crossing. When the British ''Roma''. The ''Roma'' ultimately crashed in Langley, Virginia in 1922, killing 34.

That same year, in the face of political instability and threats to nationalize his company, Nobile traveled to the U.S. work as a consultant for Goodyear in Akron, Ohio.  He returned to Italy in 1923 and began construction of a new airship, the N-1.  He was also caught up in a web of political and professional intrigue with competitors and detractors.  His principal antagonists seem to have been General Gaetano Arturo Crocco, a competing airship manufacturer, and General Italo Balbo, chief of the air force general staff, who sought to develop Italy's air fleet with heavier-than-air craft rather than the airships Nobile designed.

==Polar expeditions==
thumb|250px|Col. Umberto Nobile, designer of the "[[Norge (airship)|Norge" watching her departure from the base at Spitsbergen, from forward control car]]
===''Norge''===

In 1925 Norwegian explorer ''Norge'' (''Norway'').  On Leningrad in Russia, on its way towards its Arctic jumping-off point,Ny-Ålesund (Kings Bay), near Spitsbergen, Norway. 

On May 9, as they prepared to depart, the ''Norge'' expedition members were dismayed to hear reports that Americans Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett had beaten them to their goal, overflying the Pole before them in a Fokker F-VII.  Nevertheless, the ''Norge'' crew pressed ahead with their flight.  

On May 11, 1926, the ''Norge'' expedition left Spitsbergen. The ship flew over the Pole and landed two days later in Teller, Alaska; strong winds had made a return to Norway impossible.  In retrospect, the ''Norge'' crew may actually have achieved their aim of being the first to overfly the Pole: Byrd's May 9 flight, acclaimed for decades as the prestigious first Polar flyover, has since been subjected to several credible challenges, and it is not known whether he successfully reached the Pole first, as he claimed.

The ''Norge'' "Rome to Nome" flight was acclaimed as another great milestone in flight, but disagreement soon erupted between Nobile, the pilot, and Amundsen, the expedition leader, as to who deserved greater credit for the expedition.  The controversy was exacerbated by Mussolini's government, which trumpeted the genius of Italian engineering and ordered Nobile on a speaking tour of the U.S., further alienating Amundsen and the Norwegians.  He was famously seen off from the Baltic port city of Stolp by a group of friends who had travelled all the way from Milan to wish him luck on his departure.

===''Italia''===

Despite the controversy, Nobile continued to maintain good relations with other polar scientists, and he started planning a new expedition, this time fully under Italian control. Nobile's company managed to sell an N-class airship to Japan; however, relations between Nobile and his competitors in the fascist government were hostile, and he and his staff were subjected to threats and intimidation.  Nobile's popularity with the public meant he was, for the moment, safe from direct attack.  When the plans for his next expedition were announced, Italo Balbo is said to have commented, "Let him go, for he cannot possibly come back to bother us anymore."

The N-class airship ''Italia'' was slowly completed and equipped for Polar flight during 1927-28. Part of the difficulty was in raising private funding to cover the costs of the expedition; the Italian government limited its direct participation to sending the aging steamer ''Città di Milano'' as a support vessel to Spitsbergen, under the command of  Giuseppe Romagna.<ref>[citation needed]</ref> 

thumb|Умберто Нобиле (1926)

'''Умберто Нобиле''' (, 21 января 1885, Лауро (Авеллино) - 30 июля 1978, Рим) - итальянский дирижаблестроитель, исследователь Арктики, генерал.

==Биография==

===Начало жизни===

Родился в многодетной семье служащего в Лауро (провинция Авеллино). Умберто Нобиле окончил инженерно-математический факультет Неапольского университета, в котором изучал электротехнику и инженерное дело. С 1906 года он начал работать на итальянских железных дорогах, где занимался электрификацией железнодорожного оборудования.

В Риме.

Когда в первую мировую войну 29-летний Нобиле несколько раз пытался поступить на службу в армию, но ему было отказано по состоянию здоровья. Во время войны Нобиле работал над конструированием дирижаблей.

После войны Нобиле служил офицером-инженером на государственном авиазаводе в дирижаблей. 

В июле 1918 Нобиле вместе с инженерами Джузеппе Валле (Giuseppe Valle), Бенедетто Кроче (Benedetto Croce) и Челестино Юсуэлли (Celestino Usuelli) основали компанию по производству дирижаблей. В это время Нобиле преподавал в университете Неаполя и написал книгу ''Elementi di Aerodinamica'' (Элементы Аэродинамики). Нобиле пришел к убеждению, что полужесткие дирижабли среднего размера превосходят жёсткие и мягкие дирижабли. 

Первым проектом компании был дирижабль T-34 (Атлантики. Он был продан итальянской, а затем американской армии. В Италию и начал постройку дирижабля N-1.

=== Первая полярная экспедиция ===

В Руалем Амудсеном и американским миллионером Линкольном Эллсвортом. После серии испытательных полётов N-1 был в марте 1926 года передан экспедиции и 29 марта 1926 г. переименован в Norge (Норвегия). 

Дирижабль N-1 имел объем в 18 500 м³. Он был самым совершенным на то время итальянским полужестким дирижаблем. Корпус приобрёл более обтекаемую форму, все выступающие наружу детали корабля стали более обтекаемой формы, что давало меньший коэффициент лобового сопротивления, чем у предшественника - Т.34. В длинной застекленной кабине под килем могли расположиться 20 пассажиров. В трёх моторных гондолах были установлены двигатели «Майбах» Mb.IVa мощностью по 250 л. с. Пропеллеры деревянные. Дирижабль мог развивать скорость 80 км/ч. На этой скорости N-1 мог пролетать без посадки 4775 км. Максимальная скорость - 100 км/ч.

thumb|250px|Дирижабль N&#x2011;1&nbsp;''Norge''

Ленинграде отправился на Северному полюсу и достиг его Аляску, куда прибыл 2 дня спустя.  