Spitsbergen Airship Museum first opened in November 2008.  It is a privately owned museum, with a principal focus on imparting the history and importance of the following 3 significant Arctic airships:

- America (Wellman Chicago Record Herald Polar Expedition) in 1907/1909
- Norge (Amundsen-Ellsworth-Nobile, Transpolar Flight) in 1926
- Italia expedition (with Nobile) in 1928, as well as the rescue expeditions, at and close to Nordaustlandet, Svalbard, that followed the 1928 expedition.

The nations that participated in these historical events (Norway, Russia, Italy, America, Sweden, Czech Republic, Holland, France and Finland) are represented throughout the museum, all of which have signed the Svalbard Treaty.

Opportunities to preserve information, documents and artifacts related to the airships and their historic journey's has been limited. Much has disappeared, been forgotten, not communicated or destroyed.

Since 2005, the owners of the museum have spent considerable time visiting libraries, meeting with relatives of expedition participants, searching archives and museums and participating in seminars.  Their in depth research led them to discover an array of fascinating historical artifacts, including various documents, pictures, postcards, airship drawings, books, articles and films. Subsequently, today the museum has a substantial archive of different information related to the exhibition.

The Airship Museum is located in an historic building in Longyearbyen and is the northernmost aviation museum in the world.  The site of the museum was once the original location of the Svalbard Museum (of which complements the Airship Museum nicely), until it moved into the Forskningsparken in 2006.  It can be easily found down the road from the University buildings in Longyearbyen.

For further information on the Spitsbergen Airship Museum, including details on prices and opening times, please visit the museum's official website: www.spitsbergenairshipmuseum.com/index.htm