Developed from the larger and heavier S-9, the 1913 S-11 Polukroogly (half-round) had a conventional wooden fuselage and 100hp Gnome Monosoupape engine. It was initially equipped with ailerons that were operated by steel tubes inside the wing. Trials revealed that they were not efficient, so they were replaced by wing warping. The pilot and observer sat side-by-side, with controls only for the left seat. A top speed of 100km/h, stalling speed of 70km/h and take-off run of 75m were good enough to gain the S-11 second place in the 1913 military competition for a reconnaissance aircraft; but it was not ordered into production.

Span: 38’1″
Length: 23′
Loaded Weight: 2215 lb
Speed: 63 mph

The 1913 Sikorsky S -9 Monocoque “Kruglyi” (Rounded One) was designed and built by I.I. Sikorsky in Russia

Developed into the S-11

Span: 39’4″
Loaded Weight: 2182 lb
Speed: 62 mph

The Fritz Russ Flyer of 1910 was an American flying machine with wings in the form of half cylinders and immense helical spirals, or screws, set within them.

Aircraft” – October 1910 – page 296
“The Johnstown Aero Company, of Johnstown, Pa., have purchased the patent rights of the Fritz Russ flyer and are building men-carrying machines of that type. The ship is of novel design, being 39 feet long and 22 feet wide in rear and tapering to a point in front like a boy’s dart. It is constructed throughout of seamless steel tubing and is fitted with an Elbridge engine driving four spiral screw propellers.”

In the summer of 1910, a new and important phase of the Rusjan work began. During one of bicycle racing, events in Gorizia, Edvard and Josiph met Mihailo Mercep, an aviation enthusiast from Zagreb. The three agreed to a joint venture to built a new airplane and later make public flights and participate in air races. In August 1910, they went to Paris and bought the best 50-horsepower Gnome rotary engine available. They began work on the new airplane by the end of the month. They named the monoplane Mercep-Rusjan.

With enough financing and having a powerful enough engine, Edvard and Josiph had the opportunity to build an airplane that would achieve top performance. The airplane had a span of 14 meters. The framework was built of firewood and covered with rubber-treated fabrics. Controls for pitch and roll were moved by means of straps attached to the pilot’s body, a unique technique for keeping the hands free.

Built by the Rusjan brothers at the workshops of Mihajlo Merćep in Zagreb, construction of the airplane was completed in November 1910 and flight tests began. The prototype takes off in 28 meters (world record). Early in the program, Edvard reached altitudes of 100 meters. During a public demonstration, he made several successful flights that thrilled the Zagreb citizens. Spectators carried Edvard on their shoulders and honored him with eight-leaf wreaths, a high Yugoslavian honor.

After their successful flight demonstration with the Mercep-Rusjan, and in accord with the custom of the time, Edvard and Mercep organized a tour of European cities, the first stop being Belgrade.

The first Serbian air meeting, which was organised on 9 January 1911, was fatal for Rusjan. In impossible weather conditions, Edvard demonstrated courageous flying to the Belgrade crowds, who had not until then seen such a thing. His takeoff and flight over the town and a railway bridge over the Sava River were uneventful but when he flew close to the Kalemegdan fortress, just before landing a strong gust of wind tore off the wing of his aircraft, at an approximate height of 20 meters.

The accident was fatal, Eduardo died on the way to the hospital, and at 25 years old he became the first victim of flying in Serbia and the 34th victim of motorised flying in the world.

Engine: Gnome 50 hp
Wingspan: 14 m
Ceiling: 400 m
Take-off run: 28 m
Landing run: 60-70 m

Since Rusjan could not realise the planned development of aircraft to commercial production in Slovene circumstances, in the middle of 1910 he concluded a partnership with the Serb, Mihailo Mercep, a well-known Zagreb photographer and cyclist, who planned the production of aircraft for the market. So the Mercep-Rusjan monoplane (a supplemented variant of EDA VI) was created in the first aircraft factory in Croatia, and it rose into the air after a record 28 metes flight. Edvard successfully flew over Zagreb with it at the end of 1910.

The EDA V monoplane proved the best performances.

In 2000, a modern reconstruction of EDA V flew by Aidussina (Slovenia). Emil Novak was at the same time the designer and test pilot.

At the air meeting which was held in Cerklje ob Krki on 24 and 25 July 2000, the Slovenian President Milan Kucan baptised a copy of Edvard’s aircraft EDA V.

In September 1909, Edvard Rusjan visited an international air meeting in Brescia (Italy), where he examined the construction of the most successful aircraft and got to know the French airman, Louis Blériot. One airplane, built according to the Blériot design, made its first flight on June 25, 1910.

EDA IV was a small monoplane copy of the aircraft with which Blériot had flown the English Channel. Although he managed to fly to a height of 40 m, at a 2nd meeting in Gorica on 26 June 1910, where 10,000 viewers gathered, it did not succeed in flying.