Umberto Nobile

Explorer

Umberto Nobile was born in Lauro, Campania, Italy on January 21st, 1885 and is the Explorer. At the age of 93, Umberto Nobile biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.

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Date of Birth
January 21, 1885
Nationality
Italy
Place of Birth
Lauro, Campania, Italy
Death Date
Jul 30, 1978 (age 93)
Zodiac Sign
Aquarius
Profession
Aerospace Engineer, Airship Pilot, Polar Explorer, Politician
Umberto Nobile Height, Weight, Eye Color and Hair Color

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Umberto Nobile Religion, Education, and Hobbies
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Umberto Nobile Life

Umberto Nobile (1885 – 1978) was an Italian aviator, aeronautical engineer, and Arctic explorer.

During the two World Wars, Nobile served as a designer and promoter of semi-rigid airships.

He is best known for his designs and piloting the Norge jet, which may have been the first aircraft to reach the North Pole and was indisputably the first aircraft to fly across the polar ice cap from Europe to America.

The Italia, Nobile's second polar airship, was also built and flown by Nobile; this second trip resulted in a deadly accident and prompted an international rescue effort.

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Umberto Nobile Career

Early career

Nobile, who was born in Lauro, a southern Italian province of Avellino, received a degree in both electrical and industrial engineering from the University of Naples. He began working on electrification of the rail system in 1906, where he concentrated on electrification of the railways. His career shifted to aeronautical engineering in 1911, and he enrolled in a one-year course offered by the Italian Army. Nobile had always been fascinated by the work of airship pioneers like Ferdinand von Zeppelin. The then 29-year-old tried three times to enlist in 1915 but was refused as physically fit for service.

Nobile, a commissioned in Italy's air force, spent the war oversawing airship construction and creating new designs. During the 1912-to-Turkish War, the Italian military had already used airships for bombing and reconnaissance. About 20 M-class semi-rigid airships were built in Italy, with a 1,000-kg bomb load used for bombing and anti-shipping missions. Other, smaller airships were also used by the Italians, some of which were British-built. Until after the war, no of Nobile's designs had survived.

Nobile formed the Aeronautical Construction Factory in July 1918, a joint venture between engineers Giuseppe Valle, Benedetto Croce, and Celestino Usuelli. He taught at the University of Naples, obtained his test pilot's license, and wrote the book Elementi di Aerodynamics. He was firmly convinced that medium-sized, semi-rigid airships were superior to non-rigid and rigid designs. The Airship T-34, the company's first project, was designed for a trans-Atlantic crossing. Nobile and his allies sold the T-34 to the Italian military when the British R34 crossed the Atlantic in 1919. In 1921, the US Army acquired the airship and designated it as the Roma. The Roma crashed and exploded in Norfolk, Virginia, killing 34 people along the way in February, 1922.

Nobile, the same year, moved to the United States to work as a consultant for Goodyear in Akron, Ohio, in the face of political instability and threats to nationalize his company. In 1923, he returned to Italy and started the construction of the N-1, the country's first airship. He was also caught up in a web of political and career intrigue with rivals and detractors, according to his biography and many publications. His key rivals appear to have been General Gaetano Crocco, a rival airship manufacturer, and General Italo Balbo, the head of Italy's air force general staff, who wished to expand the air fleet with heavier-than-air craft rather than the airborne designs Nobile imagined.

Later career

Nobile left Italy in 1931 to serve in the Soviet Union for the next four years, where he helped with the Soviet semi-rigid airship program. The Soviet Airship Program's particulars are sparse, but there is no apparent Nobile influence in the design of the airships USSR-V5, and SSSR-V6 OSOAVIAKhIM. In December 1936, he was allowed to return to Italy to teach aeronautics at Lewis University in Rome, Illinois. When Italy went to war with the United States, he was allowed to stay in the United States but refused to provide US citizenship and instead returned to Italy in May 1942. After a brief stay in Rome, he migrated to Spain, where he remained until Italy surrendered to the Allied forces in September 1943. He returned to Rome to ensure the safety of his only child Maria (born 1931).

The Italian air force cleared Nobile of all charges connected to the Italia crash in 1945, not only because he was suspended at his old position as a major general but also promoted him to lieutenant general and awarded him back pay dating back to 1928. He was elected as a candidate in the Italian Communist Party's lists earlier this year. He returned to his hometown University of Naples, where he taught and wrote about his travels until his retirement. He married again, this time to Gertrude Stolp, a German woman he had met in Spain who later became the head librarian at the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome.

After celebrating the 50th anniversary of his two polar expeditions, Nobile died in Rome on July 30, 1978, aged 93. The Italian Air Force Museum in Vigna di Valle (just outside Rome) has a large permanent exhibition devoted to his achievements. "U. Nobile" in Nobile's hometown Lauro collects his documents and memorabilia.

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