O n that 15 th February 1928, a Potez 29-2 biplane, under the name‘Belgrade’, ew from Bel- grade bound for Zagreb and arrived two hours later. Last June saw Air Serbia celebrate 92 years of civil aviation, commemorating the more than nine dec- ades since the founding of its original pre- decessor, Aeroput, and this February sees the airline mark another major anniversa- ry – 92 years since the rst ight operated along the Belgrade-Zagreb route. Aeroput’s rst planes arrived at the Belgrade Airport in early February 1928. Aeroput’s management bought four“Po- tez 29/2”type biplanes from a French com- pany. Aeroput’s management opted for this type of aircraft because the local Ikarus factory in Zemun, under license from the same French company, produced “Potez 25” aircraft for the needs of the Air Force Command and its aviation unit. The rst promotional ight was con- ducted between Belgrade and Zagreb on 15 th February 1928. The Potez 29/2 type aircraft, under the name “Belgrade”, took to the skies at 9am, under the command of company director Tadija Sondermajer and Vladimir Striževski. The rst passen-
Prvi putnici bili su novinari i foto-reporteri The first passengers were journalists and photojournalists
couple of laps above Zagreb. It was greet- ed by a large number of citizens and rep- resentatives of the authorities, and that same afternoon saw a group of Zagreb journalists y to Belgrade. During those rst years Aeroput ew the Belgrade-Za- greb route every day except Sundays, all the way until November, when winter weather conditions led to the suspend- ing of air tra c. And despite the high price of tickets and passengers’ fear of ying, the response was greater than expected!
gers, of course, were journalists and pho- tojournalists, with the ve of them coming from the Belgrade media scene. “Wheels hurl mud in all directions,” noted Politika’s journalist, “as we climb and our plane leans into a spin, it seems to us that we have not tilted, but rather that the whole of Belgrade has slanted to the side and will plunge into the Sava.” After a two-hour ight through gloomy weather, the plane landed at Bo- rongaj Airport, but not before making a
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