The official celebrations marking the centenary of the N1 Norge Polar Flight took place on 14th of April at the Palazzo dell’Aeronautica, bringing together experts, researchers and institutional representatives to reflect on one of the most significant achievements in the history of aviation: the first fully documented reaching of the North Pole by air, accomplished in 1926 by Roald Amundsen, Lincoln Ellsworth and Umberto Nobile.
The session included contributions from with distinguished figures such as Gen. Basilio Di Martino, Gianluca Casagrande, Mark Piesing, Steinar Aas, Gregory Alegi and many others, moderated by Vincenzo Grienti, Flavia Giacobbe, Massimo Mapelli and introduced by Gen. Urbano Floreani.
Together with Vincenzo Grienti, Michael F. Conners, Antonio Ventre and Petter Johannesen, with Elena Degl’Innocenti, Marco Ferracci, Emmanuele Campinotti and Vittoria Santucci, we explored the engineering brilliance of Umberto Nobile and the structural evolution that made these pioneering arctic crossings possible.
Within this context, the presentation “Anatomy of an Airship” by Max Pinucci offered a detailed analysis of the structural and engineering innovations of the N1 Norge. Through a series of technical drawings developed for the publication Airships Polar Flights, the talk explored the architectural logic of the airship and the solutions that enabled long-range polar navigation.
Revisiting the technical heritage of these “giants of the air” remains essential to understanding the foundations of modern aviation. The centenary offers not only a moment of commemoration, but also an opportunity to reconnect past innovation with contemporary perspectives on flight, exploration and design.