Tuesday, May 12, 2026

The Explorers' Club, № MCLIV

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars
11-14 May 1926: Conqueror of the South Pole Roald Amundsen, airship designer & pilot Umberto Nobile, explorer & benefactor Lincoln Ellsworth, & a crew of twelve flew the semi-rigid dirigible Norge over the North Pole from Spitsbergen, Svalbard to Teller, Alaska; the Norge originally aimed for Nome, but diverted to Teller due to weather; she was damaged during the landing & never flew again.
Commentary: There are legitimate disputes about the claims of expeditions led by Frederick Cook (1908) & Robert Peary (1909) to have reached the North Pole by foot & sledge, & less credible disputes about Richard Byrd's & Floyd Bennett's North Pole flight just days earlier (9 May 1926), but there is no dispute about the Amundsen-Ellsworth Transpolar Flight having overflown the North Pole.
The Wayback Machine Tour of Amundsen & the Arctic
"The Explorer's Club," № CXXXIX: The Amundsen-Ellsworth 1926 Transpolar Flight (2009)
"The Explorer's Club," № MLXXXIX: "Farthest North" by Flying Boats (2025)

Semper exploro.

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