For centuries explorers have dreamt of reaching the North Pole.
For very long, the arctic was unexplored and unknown territory.
In 1897 the Swedish explorer and engineer, Andre and his crew of two men attempted to reach the North Pole from the Spits burg in a gas balloon, but failed.
In 1907 the American pilot Wellman tried to reach the North Pole by airship, but failed.
In 1925 Roald Amundsen, who was the first man to reach the South Pole, tried to reach the North Pole by aircraft, but failed, but he was not deterred.
An American Millionaire, Ellsworth, invested money in a new project for Amundsen, and an Italian Airship constructor and pilot General Umberto Nobile agreed to fly the ship called “Norge” (Norway).
On the 11:th of May 1926, Norway took off from Kings Bay on the Spitzburg island with a crew of 16 men plus one dog. They flew over an ice cap that no person had ever seen and they reached the north pole the following day. After crossing the pole they continued to Alaska.
In 1952, SAS, the Scandinavian Airlines System started test flights from Scandinavia to USA, and on the 15:th of November 1954 SAS was the first airline in the world to open the polar route from Copenhagen to Los Angeles. On the 24:th of February 1957, SAS opened the second trans arctic route to Tokyo over the geographical North Pole.
In 1958 the US nuclear submarine Nautilus sailed underneath the ice of the North Pole. Afterwards the captain of the submarine wrote to general Nobile that without their previous daring flights in 1926, we would not have known enough to be able to conduct this underwater expedition.
Later expeditions to the arctic have involved icebreaker ships and even a Russian expedition with people parachuting over the North Pole.
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