Encountering the Future on Banjica Field

First pilots: Two Czechs – Simon and Čermak, a Russian – Maslenikov, a Slovenian – Russian and an Italian – Vidmar.

By Čedomir Janić

There was an outpour of public enthusiasm worldwide when for the first time a pilot successfully flew an airplane over the English Channel. This honour went to French airman Louis Blériot, who flew from Calais to Dover on July 25, 1909. from that time on, aviators became true heroes and airplanes were declared the wonder of modern technology.

Thanks to this extraordinary atmosphere in France and in other countries, there was widespread enthusiasm to stage the first air shows, public demonstrations and various competitions in which aviators tried to outdo each other in still not-quite-safe airplanes, resulting in frequent accidents and pilot deaths. All this incited the public’s desire for more, so that many aviators and various managers came to realize that, apart from popularizing aviation and airmen, organizing flights and such shows in public could also be a source of considerable income. For this reason, by late 1909, and especially during 1910, many pilots toured larger cities, organizing widely attended events for the public.

The celebrated Louis Blériot was among the first to organize such commercial tours of European capital cities. Already by September 1909, he was flying the Kaiser (Emperor) in Berlin before the German public, and was then off to Vienna. In October, he flew in Budapest and Bucharest, and in early 1910 he suffered a serious accident in Constantinople, due to which he gave up flying and devoted himself to making airplanes. Because of this accident, Louis Blériot never made it to Belgrade, where he was supposed to perform a series of flights on March 21-23, 1910, to fulfill a contract that had already been signed with the Frenchman’s representative.

A new occasion presented itself for Belgraders to see aircraft in flight on September 1910 when the renowned Czech mechanic and pilot Rudolf Simon came to the Serbian capital. With his Lohner Type Simon II airplane, this aviator performed the first airplane flight in Belgrade on September 19, during a training flight before reporters and a sparse audience. Politika daily carried an article on the event: "Simon sat in his little chair immediately next to the engine that began to work with a great roar... The contraption started to move on its wheels rather fast, and then lifted first the back wheel off the ground and right after that the two front wheels – the airplane was up in the air at an altitude of between 12 and 15 meters flying straight towards the Banjica restaurant. Once there, it made a nice semicircle, and stuck to the Torlak road and across from the military firing range it lowered a side wing and the airplane slowly and elegantly descended to the ground. The people greeted it with applause and exclamations over the aviator’s flight."

Encouraged by this success, Simon and the Olympic Club as organizer, announced a public flight for September 20, when large crowds and officials gathered on the Banjica horserace track. This time, Simon encountered difficulties when starting the Anzani engine. When he had lifted to an altitude of some ten meters and started to turn the craft, the engine began to stall so the airplane plunged scraping the ground with its left wing and broke up into several parts. Simon, fortunately, came out of this with only light injuries.

The aviator who finally made a successful flight in Belgrade was a young Muscovite Boris Maslenikov, son of a renowned and wealthy architect, who paid for his son’s pilot training in France and also bought a Maurice Farman IV with a 50 hp Gnome rotary engine. This airplane, together with the well-known Blériot XI, was the most popular and the most manufactured airplane of its time, despite the fact that it developed a maximum speed of only 65 km/h.

Maslenikov arrived in Belgrade from Sofia, where in November 1910 he was flying with Bulgarian Emperor Boris. It was agreed that he remain in Belgrade for several weeks and, depending on the weather conditions, conduct a number of flights for the public, while the other seat of the Farman would be carrying members of the royal family and other selected guests, including Branislav Nušić, the famous Serbian comedy writer and Tribina newspaper editor.

On the Banjica field - Belgrade’s first airport. there was a special space with a small box and an entrance fee of 20 dinars was charged, and just as much to watch the event from a horse and buggy. The tickets for the front row, closest to the take off point, cost five dinars, for the one behind it – 3, and the one still behind it – 1 dinar. For workers and students, the price of tickets was half a dinar. The flights, which took place in the early afternoon hours, were advertised in the newspapers and with large canvas posters places on Terazije Sq, Slavija Sq. and in some other parts of the city. Winter season rendered organization of flights quite difficult, forcing Maslenikov on a number of occasions to cancel the flight or cut short the programme, which ordinarily consisted of one or two flights at low altitudes when the aviator tested the engine, after which he flew longer with turns at greater altitudes that rarely exceeded 100 metres.

Maslenikov carried out the first flight at Banjica on December 18, 1910, after which the rumor went around town that it was worth ‘going all the way to Banjica to see this new technological marvel and the attractive young Russian who dared to tempt fate." Already on December 24, Crown Prince Aleksandar Karadjordjević, Prince Djordje and Prince Pavle, arrived and the airman – following a brief flight – informed them about the Farman’s technical data. In the days that followed, the first from among the royal family to fly with Maslenikov was Prince Djordje, followed by Prince Pavle, while King Petar I merely watched the flights. In the meantime, a number of army officers, prominent citizens and the wife of Russian Ambassador Hartvig went flying with Maslenikov, while Nušić had no such luck because on that January 2, 1911, when Maslenikov was to fly for the last time in Belgrade, Banjica was covered in snow, thus preventing the airplane with the eager passenger from taking flight.

Apart from a number of flights he carried out, during his stay in Belgrade, Maslenikov delivered a number of lectures to army officers, reporters, high school students and groups of citizens, thus broadening their knowledge about the possibilities aviation. This is why King Petar presented Maselnikov with the Order of St. Sava of the Fifth Degree on January 3, 1911. After that, Maslenikov left Belgrade for Constantinople.

While he was still packing, two other airmen – a Serb, Mihajlo Merćep, and a Slovenian, Edvard Rusjan, arrived in Belgrade and were accorded a very enthusiastic welcome. In the autumn of 1910 they built an airplane after their own design in Zagreb that they called Merćep-Rusjan, as a token of their successful cooperation. This was a fragile-structure monoplane also powered by a 50 hp Gnome engine. Owing to the snow in Banjica, they assembled it in the Belgrade Fortress’ Lower City, where there was a small strip that afforded take-offs to turn of the century airplanes.

The flight was set for the first day of Orthodox Christmas, on December 25 (new calendar) or January 7, 1911 (old calendar). On that day, a strong southeasterly wind (košava) was blowing hard and began to weaken only on January 9, so that the aviators decided to go ahead with the flight for the public. After taxiing, Rusjan flew over the fortress bulwarks, then made a turn above the Sava River, and flying over the railroad station again flew over the river approaching the place he took of from. At that moment the airplane happened to encounter strong turbulence, one wing broke so that the airplane fell on the very rampart on the riverbank taking young Rusjan to his death. He was the first aviation victim in southeastern Europe and the world’s 34th pilot to die in an airplane accident.

Rusjan’s burial in Belgrade turned into a genuine solidarity event of all South Slav nations. "If ever there was something that cut Belgrade to the quick" – wrote Serbian newspaper Politika - "with equal sorrow, and the entire city began to speak with the same amount of piety – it was yesterday when Rusjan crashed..." Thousands of people saw off the pilot’s remains, while Branislav Nušić, paying tribute to the young hero, made a touching speech on the Terazije Sq.

Flights resumed in Belgrade in late October 1911. This time round, it was a Czech pilot Jan Čermak with his little Libela biplane that carried out more than 25 successful flights at Banjica. In late July 1912, Gianni Vidmar of Trieste was the first to fly also over the center of Belgrade on his Bleriot XI at an altitude of over 500 meters, as he circled over Kalemegdan Park, the National Theater building and Terazije Sq. Vidmar also carried out a public flight at Banjica, but his plans to tour also the cities in Serbia’s interior were thwarted by the final preparations of the Serbian army for the upcoming Balkan War.