Save the date!

Following the path of Edvard Rusjan, the inventor, the sportsman an one of the first pilots in the world.

WHEN?
From Thursday 7th of July
to Sunday 10th of July 2022.

START
Gorica, Italy

FINISH
Belgrade, Serbia

EARLY BIRD FEE
150€/plane, 50€ per person
(special fees on hotels)

Wednesday 6th
An organised tour to famous wine cellars in the region; minimum 10 attendees (price and details TBD) 

Thursday, 7th

  • Landing to Gorica Airport (LIPG: opening hours from 9:00 to 18:00), welcome drink
  • Fuelling and parking planes,
  • From 2 PM to 5 PM: organised transfers to hotels1
  • 7 PM: pilot briefing
  • 8 PM: Mayor's reception in the City Hall of Nova Gorica
  • 9 PM: Presentation of biography movie of the first Slovenian pilot Edvard Rusjan

Friday, 8th

  • 9 AM: transfer from hotels to the Airport and plane check
  • 10 AM - 11 AM: plane exhibition for open public and media
  • 9 AM - 1 PM: Take off and flight to Belgrade
  • 3 PM - 4 PM: Landing in Belgrade, welcome drink
  • Fuelling and parking planes,
  • 4 PM - 5 PM: organised transfers to hotels2
  • Evening programme

Saturday, 9th
Edvard Rusjan Memorial, Slovenian Embassy reception, Belgrade City tour

Sunday, 10th

  • 8 - 9 AM: Transfer from hotels to the Airport and flight to home destination
  • 9 AM - 1 PM: Take off and flight to home destination
Register now

Fee

150€/plane, 50€ per person, covering: landing & parking fees.

A FLIGHT PIONEER

Rusjan was born in Trieste, then the major port of Austria-Hungary (now in Italy). His parents were both natives of the Gorizia and Gradisca region: his father, Franc Rusjan, was a Slovene, and his mother, Grazia Cabas, was Friulan. Rusjan spent his childhood and adolescence in Gorizia, in the suburb of Rafut.

In his youth, he became a professional bicyclist, and designed his own bicycle models, together with his brother Josip Rusjan.

He made his first flight on 25 November 1909, near Gorizia, in Eda I, a biplane of his own design. Eda was Edvard's nickname, given by his mother.

The flight was covered 60 m (200 ft) and reached a height of 2 m (6 ft 7 in). On 29 November 1909, he flew 600 m (2,000 ft) at an altitude of 12 m (39 ft). The original design was followed by several improved versions. He moved to a hangar near Miren south of Gorizia.

Rusjan first attended a public flight event with the model EDA V on 6 December 1909, when his aircraft broke apart at landing. In June 1910, he tried the model EDA V, which enabled him to fly 40 meters above the ground and overfly the whole Miren Field.

The brothers Rusjan ran out of finance for the construction of EDA VII. In 1910 Edvard Rusjan met the businessman of Serbian origin Mihajlo Merćep, who offered him financial help for his endeavors. The same year, the brothers moved to Zagreb, Croatia, when they started a project of airplane construction on larger scale. In November 1910, they constructed a new model.

In January 1911, Edvard and Josip Rusjan went on a promotional tour through the Balkan cities. During a flight in Belgrade, Serbia on 9 January 1911 a strong wind broke a wing of Edvard's aeroplane and it dived into a railway embankment near the Belgrade Fortress in a fatal crash. His funeral was attended by a large crowd of about 14,000 people.

Replica of Rusjan airplane Eda V