Renato Alessandrini

Renato Alessandrini (August 11, 1890 - May 25 1928) was an Italian explorer, perished during the polar expedition of the airship Italia.[1]

Renato Alessandrini

Biographical notes

Alessandrini was born in Rome. From 1914 he worked at the Stabilimento Costruzioni Aeronautiche (aircraft factory of the Italian Army's Engineer) in Rome, at that time headed by Umberto Nobile. Then, after the World War I, he worked at the airport of Ciampino where airships were assembled and equipped.[2]

The flights to the North Pole

Alessandrini participated as rigger and helmsman to the first two historic flights to the North Pole, being part of the crew of the airship Norge (”Amundsen-Ellsworth-Nobile, Transpolar Flight”) which was the first airship (and probably the first aircraft) to fly over the North Pole on May 12, 1926 and the first aircraft to fly over the polar ice cap between Europe and America[3], and also of the airship Italia, which made three flights over unexplored arctic regions and flew over the pole on May 24, 1928.[4]

The crash of the airship Italia

The date of the death of Renato Alessandrini is not known with certainty; he was lost on May 25, 1928, when the airship Italia crashed in the Arctic Ocean, during its flight back from the North Pole.[5][1]

Honors

Italian Honors

In 1924 Alessandrini had a formal commendation and was decorated with the Silver Medal of the Aero Club of Italy for having, on 18 April 1924, returned the aircraft N-1 to landing after that a gust of wind had torn it from the mooring at Ciampino and dragged it away.

Norwegian Honors

On October 7, 1926, the King of Norway Haakon VII granted to Alessandrini the Cross of Knight of the Order of St. Olav, as a participant in the expedition of the airship Norge.

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References
  1. "The Italian crew on the Norge - FramMuseum.no". frammuseum.no. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  2. Nobile, Umberto (1961). My Polar Flights. London: Frederick Muller.
  3. Amundsen, Roald (1927). My Life as an Explorer. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company.
  4. Nobile, Umberto (1961). My Polar Flights. London: Frederick Muller.
  5. Cross, Wilbur (2000). Disaster at the Pole. New York: Lyons Press.
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