The airship Norge and the first verified flight across the North Pole on May eleventh, nineteen twenty-six

On May 11, 1926, the airship Norge lifted off from Kings Bay, Spitsbergen, and flew across the North Pole to Teller, Alaska — completing the first verified flight over the North Pole and the first aerial crossing of the Arctic from Europe to America. The flight covered 3,300 miles in approximately 72 hours, carrying 16 crew members in a hydrogen-filled semi-rigid airship through some of the most punishing conditions in aviation history.

Who Was Behind the Norge Expedition?

Three men from three nations drove the expedition, each bringing something essential — and each expecting credit for it.

Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer already famous as the first man to reach the South Pole, conceived the mission. He had tried to fly to the North Pole in 1925 using two Dornier flying boats, reaching within 150 nautical miles before ice forced them down. That failed attempt nearly killed him. He came back determined to try a different approach.

Lincoln Ellsworth, a wealthy American adventurer, bankrolled most of the expedition. And Umberto Nobile, an Italian airship designer, built and piloted the aircraft that made it all possible. Nobile had constructed a semi-rigid airship designated the N-1 for the Italian military — 348 feet long, filled with hydrogen, powered by three Maybach engines capable of roughly 50–60 miles per hour in still air. Amundsen saw the N-1 and recognized his ticket to the Pole. They renamed it the Norge — Norwegian for “Norway.”

The division of authority was clear on paper: Amundsen led the expedition, Nobile commanded the airship. In practice, that split would prove poisonous — but not until after the flight.

What Made the Norge Flight Different from Byrd’s Claim?

Just two days before the Norge launched, on May 9, 1926, Commander Richard Byrd and pilot Floyd Bennett took off from the same base in a Fokker trimotor, claiming to have flown to the North Pole and back. That claim has been disputed for decades — the speed, timing, and navigation logs don’t quite add up.

The Norge’s flight was fundamentally different. It wasn’t a round trip. The airship flew over the Pole and continued all the way to Alaska. That trajectory is impossible to fake. You either cross the top of the world and emerge on the other side, or you don’t.

How Did They Navigate to the North Pole in 1926?

Navigation over the polar ice presented unique challenges. A magnetic compass is useless near the magnetic pole — the needle wanders aimlessly. The crew relied on sun sights with a sextant, dead reckoning, drift observations, and a sun compass.

Norwegian navigator Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen took constant readings and worked the math by hand, all while the airship drifted on Arctic winds at 50 miles per hour. Everything depended on celestial navigation and human judgment.

About 15.5 hours after departure, in the early morning of May 12, Riiser-Larsen confirmed their position: they were over the North Pole. Amundsen dropped a Norwegian flag, Ellsworth dropped an American flag, and Nobile dropped a large Italian flag given to him by Benito Mussolini — reportedly much larger than the other two, a detail Amundsen did not appreciate.

What Went Wrong After the Pole?

The triumph at the Pole gave way to a fight for survival. As the Norge continued south toward Alaska, fog rolled in — thick and wet. Moisture condensed on the envelope, added weight, and froze. Heavy ice accumulated on the airship. Chunks broke free, were flung into the propellers, and the spinning blades hurled ice shards into the fabric envelope. The crew could hear the ripping.

They patched holes while airborne in freezing temperatures as the ship wallowed under the growing weight. Nobile later described those hours as the most dangerous of the entire flight. The airship grew sluggish and hard to control. The crew burned fuel and dumped ballast to stay aloft, knowing that a forced landing on the Arctic Ocean meant death.

For over 40 hours they flew — in an open gondola, exposed to brutal cold, with a hydrogen-filled envelope collecting ice overhead. Nobile remained at the controls for most of the flight, running on willpower alone.

How Did the Flight End?

On May 14, the crew spotted the coast of Alaska. They brought the Norge down near the settlement of Teller, about 90 miles northwest of Nome. The landing was rough — wind caught the airship and dragged it — but the crew managed to deflate the envelope and secure what remained.

They were alive. They had crossed the Arctic by air: 72 hours from Kings Bay, Spitsbergen, to Teller, Alaska. 3,300 miles in an airship made of fabric, dope, and duralumin, held aloft by hydrogen gas.

What Happened to Amundsen and Nobile After the Flight?

The aftermath destroyed the partnership. Amundsen believed the credit belonged to him — it was his vision, his expedition. Nobile believed he had designed the airship, flown it, and kept everyone alive when ice nearly brought them down. The Italian press and Mussolini celebrated Nobile as a national hero. Amundsen was furious. The two men became bitter enemies.

In 1928, Nobile returned to the Arctic in a new airship, the Italia, which crashed on the ice north of Spitsbergen. Nobile survived after being rescued by a Swedish pilot, but several crew members died. Amundsen — despite despising Nobile by then — boarded a French flying boat and headed north to join the search. His plane disappeared over the Barents Sea. He was never found. The greatest polar explorer of his age, dead at 55, lost in the ice he had spent his life conquering.

Nobile was unfairly blamed for the Italia disaster and saw his reputation shattered, at least for a time. Ellsworth went on to further adventures, but the three-nation partnership was finished.

Why the Norge Flight Still Matters

The Norge expedition proved that the Arctic could be crossed by air and that navigation over featureless polar ice was achievable. It opened the conceptual door to transpolar air routes — the same routes that commercial airlines eventually adopted decades later for flights between North America and Asia. Every widebody aircraft that routes over the Arctic follows a path the Norge blazed in 1926.

The flight also demonstrated both the extraordinary capability and the brutal limitations of airship technology in extreme environments — lessons that informed decades of lighter-than-air development.

Key Takeaways

The Norge completed the first verified flight over the North Pole on May 11–12, 1926, crossing from Spitsbergen to Alaska — a 3,300-mile, 72-hour journey.
Three men led the expedition: Roald Amundsen (expedition leader), Umberto Nobile (airship designer and pilot), and Lincoln Ellsworth (financier), representing Norway, Italy, and the United States.
Navigation relied entirely on celestial methods — sextant sun sights, dead reckoning, and a sun compass — since magnetic compasses were useless near the Pole.
Severe icing nearly destroyed the airship during the crossing south of the Pole, with ice damaging the propellers and tearing the fabric envelope.
The flight’s legacy endures in modern polar air routes, but it cost its participants dearly: Amundsen died searching for Nobile two years later, and Nobile’s reputation was unjustly damaged by the Italia disaster.