Umberto Nobile

Italian aviator, aeronautical engineer and Air Force General who is most noted for his Arctic expeditions, which began in 1926. Nobile was a developer and promoter of semi-rigid airships during the years between the two World Wars. He is primarily remembered for designing and piloting the airship 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. In 1928, he crashed in his polar dirigible, the Italia. Nobile was held responsible for the accident and forced to resign. Italy restored his rank in 1945 and he was elected to the Italian Parliament in 1946. Nobile died in Rome on 30 July 1978, aged 93, after having celebrated the 50th anniversary of his two polar expeditions.