Talk:Norge (airship)

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[edit] Verified?

"the crew of the Norge are the first verified explorers to have reached the North Pole." Verified by who? This article wouldn't have been written by an Italian, by any chance...? (By the way, I doubt Peary did it in 1909, too. You've forgotten Wilkinson flew over; in 1911, I think.) Trekphiler 19:51, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

Softened the language somewhat, here and elsewhere. JHCC (talk) 17:41, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

Verified by norwegian and italian navigators on the ship and accepted by international scientific peer review. Byrds overflight has been doubted since day 1. The closest he probably came to the pole was 100 miles, whereas the margin of error for the Norge was under 5

overview here: http://library.osu.edu/sites/archives/polar/flight/controversy.htm

Benvenuto 06:30, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

The source you provide, while very interesting, merely gives an overview of the controversy without substantiating the figures you give above. In fact, it gives sources for both those who support and those who dispute Byrd's claim. JHCC (talk) 16:22, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

The most recent book I've read on the subject is Wilbur Cross's "Disaster at the Pole".IIRC he gives the figure under 5 miles as a margin of error based on the navigation equipment in use. While I am aware that this book is an apolgia for Nobile, Cross did have extensive access to Italian, Norwegian, Swedish and American sources including I believe the logs of the Norge and Italia. Cross does not go into Byrds veracity but many other people do since the release of Byrds original log which has erasures, crossed out calculations and a note ("We should be at the Pole now. Make a circle. I will take a picture. Then I want the sun. Radio that we have reached the pole and are now returning with one motor with bad oil leak but expect to make Spitzbergen.") which questions Byrds public statements (he developed an oil leak, but continued flying 100 miles more to the Pole)about the flight. Unlike Peary, no one has been able to reenact Byrds flight. I will thus give peary the benefit of the doubt (ie unlikely, but possible).

"NARRATOR: Others doubted Byrd in private. That summer, Bernt Balchen and the North Pole pilot, Floyd Bennett, took the Josephine Ford on a cross country promotional tour.

URBAHN: Bernt as always kept a very careful log and he realized that the plane wasn't as fast as it was supposed to be and he knew that something was wrong, that it couldn't have reached the North Pole and finally asked Bennett and Bennett definitely told Bernt Balchen that they had not reached it.

NARRATOR: Balchen kept this story to himself. Clearly, staying on Byrd's good side was a smart move for an ambitious young pilot. But doubts about the flight persist. Did Byrd fall short of the Pole, and if so, by how much and did he know it? The flight diary doesn't resolve the question Was Byrd's career as an explorer launched on a lie?"

from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/ice/filmmore/transcript/transcript1.html

PS despite my moniker, I'm afraid I'm not italian (or norwegian) so i'm not trying to bring national bias into this article. I'm also not trying to demolish Byrd or his later career based on his lies about the Polar flight. His flight was clearly the equal of Amundsens first aerial attempt on the Pole (superior in fact, since he wasn't forced down on the ice for 3 weeks!).Benvenuto 03:56, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Picture?

This article definitely needs a picture. I came here circuitously through the front page article about the doomed hydrogen balloon North Pole expedition (FA April 23, 2006), and am being slowly educated on the technical aspects of polar expeditions, balloons, airships etc. As such, 'semi-rigid airship' means exactly nothing to me (not being flippant or insulting); a picture is vital IMO.--Anchoress 00:52, 25 April 2006 (UTC)