Airship Italia

Airship Italia was a semi-rigid airship used by Italian engineer Umberto Nobile in his second series of flights around the North Pole. It crashed in 1928, with one confirmed fatality from the crash, one fatality from exposure while awaiting rescue, and the disappearance (and presumed death) of six crew members who were trapped in the still-airborne envelope.

Italia was an N-class semi-rigid airship, designation N-4. In design it was almost identical to the N-1 Norge but slightly larger in gas capacity. Little is known of airship N-2. Airship N-3 was sold to Japan and became "Naval Airship No. 6". Nobile and some of his staff traveled to Japan in 1926 or 1927 to deliver this airship. According to Italian sources, airship N-5 (which was larger and had three times the lifting capacity of N-1) was Nobile's preferred design for the Arctic expedition, but when funding was refused by the Italian government he built N-4 with the assistance of private backers and the City of Milan. In May 1928 the Italia set off for the Arctic Circle, stopping at a German airship hangar at Stolp, Pomerania, and the airship mast at Vadsø in Norway.

At 01:15 on 15 April 1928, the Italia took off from its base at Milan for the Arctic. With 20 personnel on board, and a payload of 17,000 pounds of fuel and supplies, the journey to Stolp in Germany took 30 hours through a variety of bad weather conditions. Near Trieste a wind gust damaged one of the tail fins. Later in the Sudetes the ship faced severe hailstorms and narrowly escaped lightning strikes. On arrival at Stolp at 07:15 on 16 April 1928, inspection revealed hail damage to the propellers and envelope, and severe tail fin damage. All the ballast and most of the fuel had been used fighting the wind. Repairs took 10 days, and required parts and technicians to be sent from Italy.

Takeoff from Stolp was further delayed by bad weather, but at 03:28 on 3 May 1928, Italia set off for Norway. Eight hours later, escorted by Swedish naval planes, Italia passed over . Crewmember Finn Malmgren spotted his house from the air and the ship descended to drop a letter to his mother. Bad weather forced the ship east over Finland, and they passed over Rovaniemi at 01:49 on 4 May. Italia reached the mooring mast at Vadsø later that day.

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