22 Facts About Umberto Nobile

Umberto Nobile was an Italian aviator, aeronautical engineer and Arctic explorer.

Umberto Nobile designed and flew the Italia, a second polar airship; this second expedition ended in a deadly crash and provoked an international rescue effort.

Umberto Nobile was born in Lauro, in the southern Italian province of Avellino, into a family of small landowners.

Umberto Nobile was director of the Factory from 1919 until 1927.

Umberto Nobile lectured at the University of Naples, obtained his test pilot's license and wrote the textbook Elementi di Aerodinamica.

Umberto Nobile later claimed that during this time he faced professional hostility from some high profile members of the Air Force establishment, including Italo Balbo, who had some of the best workers of the Military Factory dismissed on suspicion of being anti-fascists, obstructed plans for a Rome-Rio de Janeiro flight, and held back support for polar expeditions.

The Italian State Airship Factory, which had built Umberto Nobile's N-1, made it available for the expedition 29 March 1926.

Amundsen insisted in the contract that Umberto Nobile should be the pilot and that five of the crew should be Italian; Amundsen named the airship Norge.

The controversy was exacerbated by Mussolini's Fascist government, which trumpeted the genius of Italian engineering and exploration; Umberto Nobile was ordered to make a speaking tour of the US, further alienating Amundsen and the Norwegians.

Umberto Nobile's company managed to sell the N-3 airship to Japan; however, relations between Umberto Nobile and his competitors in the fascist government were hostile, and he and his staff were subjected to threats and intimidation.

Umberto Nobile argued that the plane could only take one survivor and the other seriously injured man was so heavy Lundborg was unsure he could take off.

Umberto Nobile insisted that he wanted to continue the search for the six crew who were swept away by the airship when it disintegrated, but he was ordered back to Rome with the others.

An aggrieved Umberto Nobile was not shy about his complaints; in an interview with Benito Mussolini, he offended the dictator by detailing his grievances at length.

In protest of the findings, General Umberto Nobile resigned from the air force in March 1929.

In July 1931 Umberto Nobile took part in the expedition of the Soviet icebreaker Malygin to Franz Josef Land and the northern Kara Sea.

Umberto Nobile moved to the Soviet Union in January 1932, and lived there for nearly five years to work on the Soviet semi-rigid airship program.

Umberto Nobile returned to Italy in December 1936, after he had been appointed as a member of the Pontificial Academy of Sciences.

Umberto Nobile was permitted to remain after Italy declared war on the United States, but declined the offer of US citizenship and opted to return to Europe in May 1942.

In 1948 Umberto Nobile returned to teaching at the University of Naples, where he studied and taught aeronautical and astronautical subjects.

Umberto Nobile continued giving interviews and writing books until his death, without managing to fully convince public opinion and some military experts of his version of the events.

Umberto Nobile died in Rome on 30 July 1978, aged 93, shortly after the celebrations for the fiftieth anniversary of his two expeditions.

Umberto Nobile was married to Carlotta Ferraiolo, daughter of a wealthy notary from Teano and ten years his senior, from 1916 until her death in 1934.