The Italian explorer and airship designer Umberto Nobile (1885-1978) was a pioneer in Arctic aviation. His dirigible flight over the North Pole encouraged greater use of aircraft in the Arctic.

Umberto Nobile was born in Lauro, Italy, near Naples on Jan. 21, 1885. One of seven children whose father was a government official with limited income, Nobile had to earn his own way at the University of Naples. He graduated with honors in engineering. His early interest in aviation led to a career in dirigible design and construction. Physically unfit for active service in World War I, Nobile was commissioned in the Italian air force and became director of the military factory of aeronautical construction in Rome and eventually a general. His professional skills and long hours of work made him a leading designer of lighter-than-air craft. Convinced of the superior airworthiness of semirigid airships, he designed and built dirigibles...