Italian Air Force: "The expedition of the airship Italy of 1928 - an airship between ships and airplanes to the North Pole". Study conference at the historical museum of the Air Force of Vigna di Valle

Promoted by the Military Staff of the Air Force, the 23 February took place at the Historical Museum of the Air Force of Vigna di Valle the Study Conference "The expedition of the airship of Italy of 1928: an airship between ships and airplanes at the North Pole".

Many participants: authorities, scholars, history buffs, teachers and students of the "De Pinedo-Colonna" Institute of Higher Education in Rome, attended the conferences and debates conducted by highly qualified experts in the "Velo" Hangar of the Museum where important relics of the expedition, unique in the world, are kept. Also present were delegations of aeronautical associations and AIRE - Association for vintage radio.

Inspired by the research carried out at the "Centro Documentazione Umberto Nobile" by Claudio Sicolo and recently published in two of his books, the conference has placed Umberto Nobile's expedition in a completely new perspective, re-evaluating the tragedy of the airship Italy as an extraordinary testimony. always current, of a period of the twentieth century in which tumultuous progress and exciting competitions matured, but also bitter contradictions.

In the enterprise of the airship, which, after the Norge airship, reached the North Pole for the second time, the last polar explorations were intertwined, still inspired by romantic feelings, developments in air navigation with airships and airplanes, new models of cooperation aerial and naval, powerful innovations in radio communications, journalism and publishing.

In the background of the figure of Umberto Nobile, in a thrilling crossroads of great transformations, we can glimpse the exploits of famous explorers such as the American Edwin Peary and the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, but also the Polar companies of the Italian Navy with the ship "Stella" Polare "under the command of Luigi Amedeo di Savoia and Umberto Cagni, the shining work of Guglielmo Marconi, the literary dreams of Gabriele d'Annunzio who also imagined, anticipating its effects, the heroic polar enterprise.

Speakers: Gregory Alegi - Professor of the Air Force Academy, Giuliano Manzari - Navy historian, Gianluca Casagrande of the Italian Geographic Society. Patrizio Di Nicola - professor of organizational systems at the University of Rome has sent the registration of his contribution.

A guided tour through the museum relics, enriched by the demonstration by Claudio Berrettoni of the operation of the famous shortwave field radio "Ondina 33", and finally the visit to the "Documentation Center Umberto Nobile", completed the intense day.

 

 

Italian Air Force: "The expedition of the airship Italy of 1928 - an airship between ships and airplanes to the North Pole". Study conference at the historical museum of the Air Force of Vigna di Valle