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54-593: Jaktfalken was constructed and manufactured by Svenska Aero as a private venture, internally designated the SA-11 for the initial variant. The company contacted the Swedish Aerial board, requesting guidelines and wishes for a fighter aircraft. When no reply was received, Svenska Aero began to look at foreign designs to get some guidance. Jaktfalken was a conventional biplane equipped with an Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar 500 hp 14-cylinder radial engine . The landing gear

108-642: A Hawker Fury . When the Swedish Air Force wanted an additional seven aircraft in 1933, Svenska Aero had been bought by ASJA and the deliveries come from the new manufacturer, who made some minor modifications to the stabilizer and the windshield. The series produced aircraft was to be called J 6 in Swedish service. After the Swedish Air Force bought a Svenska Aero Jaktfalken J 5 in 1930 Flygstyrelsen (The Swedish Air Board) decided to use

162-600: A detachment ) to Svea Wing (F 8) in October 1938, there were seven J 6's left in the air force, they were used as fighter trainers. Three aircraft were given to Finland during the Winter War 1939–1940, all the remaining aircraft were scrapped in 1941. Sweden gave three Jaktfalkens (two J 6Bs and one J 6A) to the Finnish Air Force on 8 December 1939. These were the oldest ones of the type that Sweden had; it

216-473: A Bristol Jupiter as the standard engine. Two J 5s were already ordered but were not ready for delivery. The designer, Carl Clemens Bücker, was forced to reconstruct the aircraft from the firewall forward to make room for the new engine. The modified aircraft was given the designation J 6. Svenska Aero wanted more orders of the type in order to bring down the cost and rationalize production. Flygstyrelsen then suggested that another four J 6s should be bought for

270-498: A Rome- Rio de Janeiro flight, and held back support for polar expeditions. In late 1925 Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen sought out Nobile to collaborate on a flight to the North Pole – still at that time an unreached goal for aviators – using an airship. Amundsen had previously in early 1925 flown to within 150 nautical miles (280 km) of the North Pole, in a pair of Italian-built Dornier Wal flying boats along with

324-629: A half hours later the ship flew over the Pole and landed two days later in Teller, Alaska ; strong winds had made the planned landing at Nome, Alaska, impossible. In retrospect, the Norge crew actually achieved their aim of being the first to overfly the Pole: Byrd's 9 May flight, acclaimed for decades as the prestigious first Polar flyover, has since been subjected to several credible challenges, including

378-493: A large permanent exhibition on his achievements. A museum in his hometown of Lauro collects his documents and memorabilia. Nobile was married to Carlotta Ferraiolo, daughter of a wealthy notary from Teano and ten years his senior, from 1916 until her death in 1934. Together they had a daughter, Maria. In 1959 he remarried with Gertrude Stolp, a German woman whom he had met in Spain in 1943 and who later became chief librarian at

432-787: A member of the Pontificial Academy of Sciences . For a few months he also worked on aviation projects with Caproni , including methods to recover from a spin and an aircraft that could carry a MAS (motorboat) or a tank . Due to the hostility of the Fascist government, Nobile moved to the United States in 1939 to teach at Lewis University (at the time called Lewis Holy Name School of Aeronautics due to its aviation-focused curriculum) in Romeoville and in Chicago . He

486-482: A new expedition, this time fully under Italian control. Nobile's company managed to sell the N-3 airship to Japan; however, relations between Nobile and his competitors in the fascist government were hostile, and he and his staff were subjected to threats and intimidation. Nobile's popularity with the public meant he was, for the moment, safe from direct attack. When the plans for his next expedition were announced, Italo Balbo

540-475: A pontoon from the craft was later found, the bodies of Amundsen, the pilot René Guilbaud and the four others on board were not. After a month of privation for the Italia survivors, the first rescue plane, a Swedish Air Force Fokker C.V -E ski plane , piloted by Lieutenant Einar Lundborg and with Lieutenant Schyberg as observer landed near the crash site. Nobile had prepared a detailed evacuation plan, with

594-453: A radio transceiver, a tent which they later painted red for maximum visibility, and, critically, boxes of food and survival equipment which quick-witted engineer Ettore Arduino had managed to throw onto the ice before he and his five companions were carried off to their deaths by the wrecked but still airborne airship envelope and keel. As the days passed, the drifting sea ice took the survivors towards Foyn and Broch islands. A few days after

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648-698: Is an aircraft engine developed by Armstrong Siddeley . The Jaguar was a petrol -fuelled air-cooled 14-cylinder two-row radial engine design. The Jaguar III was first used in 1923, followed in 1925 by the Jaguar IV and in 1927 by the Jaguar VI. In 1925 the Jaguar became the first production aero engine incorporating a geared supercharger . The Jaguar was developed from the Royal Aircraft Factory RAF.8 design proposal of 1916. The RAF.8

702-481: Is on public display at the Science Museum (London) . Data from Lumsden Related development Comparable engines Related lists Umberto Nobile Umberto Nobile ( Italian pronunciation: [umˈbɛrto ˈnɔːbile] ; 21 January 1885 – 30 July 1978) was an Italian aviator, aeronautical engineer and Arctic explorer. Nobile was a developer and promoter of semi-rigid airships in

756-479: Is said to have commented, "Let him go, for he cannot possibly come back to bother us anymore." The Italia , nearly identical to the Norge , was slowly completed and equipped for Polar flight during 1927–28. Part of the difficulty was in raising private funding to cover the costs of the expedition, which finally was financed by the city of Milan; the Italian government limited its direct participation to providing

810-459: The Barkarby air force base. After one of his landings, he said, "this is the best aircraft that I have flown so far." On November 11, 1929, Jaktfalken was presented for representatives from authorities and the press. The Swedish Air administration decided that three Jaktfalken and three British Bristol Bulldog II fighters were to be ordered for comparative tests. The prototype was bought by

864-676: The Italia crash, and not only reinstated him at his former rank as major general, but promoted him to lieutenant general and awarded him back pay dating to 1928. The following year he was elected to the Constituent Assembly as independent candidate in the lists of the Italian Communist Party . In that capacity he was part of the 75-member Committee that produced the main draft of the Italian Constitution . In 1948, Nobile returned to teaching at

918-451: The Swedish Air Force on January 9, 1930 for 81,654 Norwegian krone , and given the designation J 5 . By February 1930, the Air administration decided to use a Bristol Jupiter engine as the air force standard engine. The designer, Carl Clemens Bücker was forced to modify the two ordered aircraft, by making new engine attachments and make modifications to the fuselage. These aircraft were given

972-835: The University of Naples in 1908 with a degree in industrial engineering, Nobile was hired by the Italian state railways. In 1911 his interests turned to the field of aeronautical engineering and he enrolled into a course offered by the Italian Army's Engineers Corps. During World War I he served as a military engineer , working at the Military Factory for Aeronautical Construction and Experience ( Stabilimento Militare di Costruzioni ed Esperienze Aeronautiche ) in Rome. During this time he designed airships designed for anti-submarine reconnaissance, 15 of which would be built after

1026-566: The years between the two World Wars . He is primarily remembered for designing and piloting the airship Norge , which may have been the first aircraft to reach the North Pole , and which was indisputably the first to fly across the polar ice cap from Europe to America. Nobile also designed and flew the Italia , a second polar airship; this second expedition ended in a deadly crash and provoked an international rescue effort. Umberto Nobile

1080-465: The American millionaire-adventurer Lincoln Ellsworth and the pilot Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen , but their planes were forced to land near 88 degrees North, and the six men were trapped on the ice for 30 days. The Italian State Airship Factory, which had built Nobile's N-1, made it available for the expedition 29 March 1926. Amundsen insisted in the contract that Nobile should be the pilot and that five of

1134-570: The Military Factory's first projects in this direction was the T-34 , which was designed for a trans-Atlantic crossing. The United States Army purchased the airship in 1921 and commissioned it as the Roma . In February 1922 the hydrogen-fueled Roma crashed and exploded in Norfolk, Virginia , after hitting high-tension power lines, killing 34 in what was the worst aviation disaster in the United States at

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1188-461: The RAF.8 and focus efforts to get the unreliable Siddeley Puma into effective service, an engine that had been ordered in large numbers despite a lack of testing. As a result, the RAF.8 design, then known as the Jaguar, was not run until 21 June 1922. Initial performance was not as expected; as a result the stroke was increased to 5.5 in (139.7 mm) on all variants after the Jaguar I. By that time,

1242-459: The Soviet icebreaker "Krasin" . However, there were persistent rumors that Malmgren was killed and cannibalized by Zappi and Mariano. A "highly imaginative, fictionalized version" of these events was made into the 1969 film The Red Tent . The film was an Italian/Soviet co-production and featured Peter Finch as Nobile, Sean Connery as Amundsen and Hardy Krüger as Lundborg. In the wake of

1296-517: The Swedish Air Force. The first J 6 was flown in 1930, at the test flight, the aircraft suffered from heavy vibrations in the tail section. The aircraft was then transferred to the CFV where they tried to modify the construction to reduce the vibrations. Although the problems weren't solved by the modifications, the aircraft was approved by the air force. The third aircraft was ready in the autumn of 1930. This aircraft had similar problems with vibrations as

1350-547: The University of Naples, where he studied and taught aeronautical and astronautical subjects. He continued giving interviews and writing books and articles until his death, without managing to fully sway public opinion and some military experts of his version of the events of his polar expeditions. Nobile died in Rome on 30 July 1978, aged 93, shortly after the celebrations for the fiftieth anniversary of his two expeditions. The Italian Air Force Museum at Vigna di Valle has

1404-450: The aircraft's fuselage and gave it a new landing gear and Jupiter VIIF engine. The Swedish Air Force ordered 3 aircraft of this modified type and gave them the designation J 6A . These aircraft were delivered during the summer of 1932 and they were stationed at the F 3 Malmslätt air force base. All J 6's were transferred between 1932 and 1934 to F 1, in order to be used for fighter training. Another seven aircraft were ordered by May 1933 but

1458-521: The airship and sending the aging steamer Città di Milano as a support vessel to Svalbard , under the command of Giuseppe Romagna . This time the airship used a German hangar at Stolp en route to Svalbard and the mast at Vadsø (Northern Norway). On 23 May 1928, after an outstanding 69-hour-long flight to the Siberian group of Arctic islands, the Italia commenced its flight to the North Pole with Nobile as both pilot and expedition leader. On 24 May,

1512-558: The assembly of the N-3 airship, which had been sold to the Japanese Imperial Navy , and personally took part in several test flights. Nobile later claimed that during this time he faced professional hostility from some high-profile members of the Air Force establishment, including Italo Balbo , who had some of the best workers of the Military Factory dismissed on suspicion of being anti-fascists , obstructed plans for

1566-481: The company had been merged in 1932 with ASJ. The aircraft was thereafter produced and delivered by ASJA. As soon as the order had been received, manufacture began. The first aircraft was ready by November 1934. All aircraft were ready and were delivered by June 1935. The Swedish Air Force designated these aircraft J 6B . When all fighters were transferred from the Västmanland Wing (F 1) (where F 8 had been

1620-413: The crash the Swedish meteorologist Finn Malmgren and Nobile's second and third in command Mariano and Zappi decided to leave the immobile group and march towards land. Malmgren, who was injured, weakened and reportedly still depressed over his meteorological advice that he felt contributed to the crash, asked his two Italian companions to continue without him. These two were picked up several weeks later by

1674-514: The crash, a collection of nations, including the Soviet Union, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Italy, launched the first polar air and sea rescue effort. Privately owned ships which had been chartered by polar scientists and explorers also participated. Even Roald Amundsen put aside his past differences with Nobile and boarded a French seaplane and headed for the rescue headquarters; this plane disappeared between Tromsø and Svalbard , and though

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1728-452: The crew should be Italian; Amundsen named the airship Norge ( Norway ). On 14 April the airship left Italy for Leningrad in Russia with stops at Pulham (England) and Oslo. On its way towards its Arctic jumping-off point, Ny-Ålesund (Kings Bay) at Vestspitsbergen, Svalbard (belonging to Norway) it also made a stop at the airship mast at Vadsø (Northern Norway). On 29 April Amundsen

1782-507: The dictator by detailing his grievances at length. The official inquiry and the embarrassment over the crash gave Nobile's enemies the chance they were looking for: blame for the disaster was placed on his shoulders, and he was accused of abandoning his men on the ice – charges he would spend the rest of his life trying to dispel. In protest of the findings, General Nobile resigned from the air force in March 1929. In July 1931, Nobile took part in

1836-424: The discovery of Byrd's flight diary, which showed that navigational data in his official report was fraudulent. Byrd's co-pilot Bennett is said later to have admitted that they faked their flight to the Pole. The Norge "Rome to Nome" flight was acclaimed as another great milestone in flight, but disagreement soon erupted between Nobile (designer and pilot), and Amundsen (expedition leader, observer and passenger) on

1890-507: The engine had been fitted with a gear-driven supercharger . Throughout its career the Jaguar suffered from vibration due to the lack of a crankshaft centre bearing. The most powerful version of the engine, the Jaguar VIC, produced a maximum of 490 hp (365 kW) on takeoff at 1,950 rpm and weighed 910 lb (413 kg). The later Lynx was designed using one row of Jaguar cylinders. A preserved Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar

1944-680: The expedition of the Soviet icebreaker Malygin to Franz Josef Land and the northern Kara Sea . He moved to the Soviet Union in 1932, and lived there for nearly five years to work on the Soviet semi-rigid airship program . Few details of the program have been documented, but Nobile supervised the manufacturing of three airships, including SSSR-V6 OSOAVIAKhIM , and designed two others that were intended for military use. Nobile returned to Italy in December 1936, after he had been appointed as

1998-472: The first prototype. The aircraft crashed during the first flight and the test pilot died. This test pilot was Einar Lundborg , a national hero, who had rescued the Arctic explorer Umberto Nobile . The accident caused a major storm against the leadership of the Swedish Air Force. The accident was investigated by a commission. Two J 5s and five J 6s were transferred to the Swedish Air Force. Bücker later modified

2052-489: The flight, as to who deserved greater credit for the expedition. The controversy was exacerbated by Mussolini's Fascist government, which trumpeted the genius of Italian engineering and exploration; Nobile was ordered to make a speaking tour of the U.S., further alienating Amundsen and the Norwegians. Despite the controversy, Nobile continued to maintain good relations with other polar scientists, and he started planning

2106-430: The gondola; the fate of the six men was never resolved. One of the ten men on the ice, Pomella, died from the impact; Nobile suffered a broken arm, broken leg, broken rib and head injury; Cecioni suffered two badly broken legs; Malmgren suffered a severe shoulder injury and suspected injury to a kidney; and Zappi had several broken ribs. The crew managed to salvage several items from the crashed airship gondola, including

2160-520: The landing gear and the fuselage after the delivery. The aircraft had now a more angular fuselage and the Jupiter VIIF was chosen as the engine. The Swedish Air Force received three Jaktfalken IIs in 1932. Argentine and Japanese military representatives tested the aircraft but placed no orders. The sole export order would be from Norway , who ordered one aircraft in 1931, equipped with an Armstrong Siddeley Panther IIIA engine to compare against

2214-406: The most seriously wounded man (the heavy built mechanic Cecioni) at the top of the list and himself as number 4, with the navigator (Viglieri) and the radio operator (Biagi) as respectively no. 5 and 6. However, Lundborg refused to take anyone but Nobile. He argued that the plane could only take one survivor and the other seriously injured man was so heavy Lundborg was unsure he could take off. Nobile

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2268-509: The name SA-14 Jaktfalken I (or J 6 in the Swedish Air Force). The order was followed by a new one for 5 aircraft with Jupiter VII engines in 1930, designated SA-14 Jaktfalken II (or J 6A in the Swedish Air Force). During test flights, powerful vibrations were encountered. Both Svenska Aero and CFV tried to solve the problem, without success. The aircraft was still approved by the Swedish Air Force. Bücker and CFV tried to modify

2322-482: The search for the six crew who were swept away by the airship when it disintegrated, but he was ordered back to Rome with the others. Two hundred thousand cheering Italians met Nobile and his crew on arrival in Rome on 31 July. This show of popularity was unexpected by Nobile's detractors, who had been seeding the foreign and domestic press with accusations against him. An aggrieved Nobile was not shy about his complaints; in an interview with Benito Mussolini , he offended

2376-412: The ship reached the Pole and had already turned back toward Svalbard when it ran into a storm. On 25 May, the Italia crashed onto the pack ice less than 30 kilometres north of Nordaustlandet (Eastern part of Svalbard). Of the 16 men in the crew, ten were thrown onto the ice as the gondola was smashed; the remaining six crewmen were trapped in the buoyant superstructure as it ascended skyward due to loss of

2430-626: The time. In the same year Nobile worked with Gianni Caproni on the design the first Italian all-metal aircraft, the Caproni Ca.73 , and traveled to the United States to work as a consultant for Goodyear in Akron, Ohio . In 1923 he began the design of a new airship, the N-1, which was built for the United States, Spain, Argentina and Japan. He would travel himself to Japan in January 1927 to supervise

2484-552: The war, and taught courses for aspiring officers. In 1918 he designed the first Italian-made parachute . He was director of the Factory from 1919 until 1927. He also lectured at the University of Naples, obtained his test pilot's license and wrote the textbook Elementi di Aerodinamica ( Elements of Aerodynamics ). During this time Nobile became convinced that medium-sized, semi-rigid airships would be superior to non-rigid and rigid designs, and focused on their design. One of

2538-497: Was airlifted to Søre Russøya , base camp of Swedish and Finnish air rescue efforts. When Lundborg returned alone to pick up a second survivor he crashed his plane on landing, and was trapped with the other five. Eventually, Nobile reached the Città di Milano , where, he later said, he was dismayed at the incompetence he found. His attempts to help co-ordinate the international rescue effort were blocked, and when he threatened to leave he

2592-564: Was born in Lauro , in the southern Italian province of Avellino , into a family of small landowners. His father Vincenzo, a civil servant, belonged to the cadet branch of an aristocratic family that had been stripped of its titles after the Italian unification over their continuing loyalty to the deposed Bourbons , and which had adopted the Nobile surname for that reason. After graduating from

2646-474: Was common to give away the oldest equipment as military aid. The aircraft were designated the two-letter code JF (for Jakt-Falken , numbers JF-219 , JF-224 and JF-228 , the latter two being J 6Bs) and were used for training at the airfield at Kauhava until 1945, when all were scrapped. Data from Complete Book of Fighters General characteristics Performance Armament Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar The Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar

2700-430: Was dismayed at the arrival of Richard E. Byrd 's American expedition, which also aimed to reach the Pole. On 9 May, after Byrd and Floyd Bennett departed in their Fokker F-VII and returned less than 16 hours later claiming to have overflown the Pole, Amundsen was one of the first to congratulate them. The Norge crew pressed ahead with their flight. On 11 May 1926, the Norge expedition left Svalbard. Fifteen and

2754-406: Was fixed and there was a skid under the tail. The fuselage framework was made of welded beams covered with fabric. The fore and aft part of the fuselage was covered in aluminium sheet . There was a fuel tank between the engine and the cockpit, which contained enough fuel for 2.5 hours of flying. The Swedish Air Force test pilot Nils Söderberg was given the mission to try out the new prototype at

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2808-496: Was permitted to remain in the US after Italy declared war on the United States, but declined the offer of US citizenship and opted to return to Europe in May, 1942. Following a brief stay in Rome he moved to Spain, where he remained until Mussolini was deposed, after which he made his definite return to his native country. In 1945, the Italian air force cleared Nobile of all charges related to

2862-564: Was placed under virtual arrest by Captain Romagna. His telegrams to the survivors still on the ice, as well as to various people involved in the rescue, were heavily censored. It was wrongly reported in Fascist Italian newspapers that his own evacuation was an obvious sign of cowardice. After 48 days on the ice floe, the last five men of his crew were rescued by the Soviet icebreaker Krasin . Nobile insisted that he wanted to continue

2916-575: Was the work of a design team led by F.M. Green, and incorporated the findings of research into aluminium air-cooled cylinders by Samuel D. Heron and Professor A. H. Gibson. Disillusioned by political and press criticism of the Royal Air Factory, Green and his design team, including Heron, left the Factory in January 1917 and took up positions with the Siddeley-Deasy company. There they were required by official policy to suspend work on

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