With the adoption of the "Regulation on Airborne Vehicles" in 1913, Serbia became the fifth country in the world to regulate the use of its airspace in a modern way, based on the legal assumption that the sky above the national territory is an integral part of it. Postal air traffic was conceived even before the end of the First World War, when Serbian pilots began to fly on the Skopje-Thessaloniki route. After the proclamation of the Kingdom of Serbia and Montenegro, this postal service was expanded to Novi Sad, Niš and Skopje, and then to Mostar, Sarajevo and Zagreb.
The construction of the "Dojno Polje" airport, two kilometers from Zemun next to the Bezanija road (today Tošin Bunar), in the project of which Milutin Milanković also participated, began in 1923. The port building was located across from today's "Tošin bunar" railway station, while the runway had the direction of today's Omladinskih brigada street, from the highway to the end of Milankovićeva. Until the completion of the city airport, the airport in the village of Jabuci near Pancevo served as a temporary airfield. It was, in fact, a well-leveled meadow with an area of 25 hectares "which is to be used for cattle grazing, except for the short time when the airplane descends and rises, because the same is done in Prague and other places." The first plane, the biplane "spad-46", landed in Pancevo in March 1919. Pancevac airport was anything but accessible. The journey to the airport took at least two hours, from the pier on the Danube, by boat to the port of Pančevo and then by taxi to the airport. An exemplary introduction to the flight to Paris, which lasted a day and a half.
It was only a few years later that interest arose in Belgrade, conveniently located along the routes connecting Europe with Asia Minor, to be included in regular international air traffic. In January 1923, the Royal Government entered into an agreement with the Franco-Roman company (later Cidna), which was granted the right to operate international air traffic between the Kingdom and the surrounding countries for the next three years. In order to confirm the agreement, the state also gave some concessions: free use of the airport in Pancevo, two million dinars in aid and customs relief. In return, the French-Romanian company committed itself to regular flights, constant presence at the airport and employment of the local population. The company's first plane landed at the airport in Pancevo in March 1923.
The episode with Cidna, however, is best remembered for the first night flight on the Belgrade-Bucharest line, which the company intended to compete with the famous "Orient Express" as traditionally the fastest connection between Europe and the Middle East. The night flight on the section between the Serbian and Romanian capitals was necessary in order for the plane on the Paris-Istanbul line to arrive at its destination before the train. The first "Kodron C-61" took off from Bucharest at four in the morning and landed in Belgrade after five hours, on September 9, 1923. When, a year later, Cidna introduced a line to Istanbul via Sofia in addition to the line via Bucharest, Belgrade grew into a strong regional hub.
TO BOMBAY AND BACK: The successful operation of Cidna and the growing interest of some German companies in flights via Belgrade led the members of the Belgrade Aero Club to ask the government to protect their domestic interests and establish their own company that would deal with civil traffic. And so it was: at a conference in Belgrade on February 6, 1926, a joint-stock company for air transport was founded, and Petar Vučković, a lawyer from Belgrade, was registered as the founder. The company undertook to start the Belgrade-Zagreb line, while the state promised to cover three-quarters of the costs per kilometer of flight in cash and in kind. However, the subscription of shares was below all expectations, so that by March 1927, only 10 percent of the required six million dinars, which the state had initially prescribed, had been collected. There was a real danger that the society would be extinguished even before it started.
At that time, just like today, the power of propaganda was enormous. Tadija Sondermeyer, an elite Serbian military pilot, aero-engineer, founder and vice-president of the Aero-club (see box), came up with the idea to debunk investors and increase public interest with an adventurous flight from Paris to Bombay and back to Belgrade. Together with his co-pilot Leonid Baydak, Sondermeier flew to the east on April 25, 20 on the "Potez-1927" plane. After 14.800 kilometers traveled, 14 stages and 11 days of travel, the plane landed happily in Belgrade. The welcome at the airport was attended by 30.000 enthusiastic citizens of Belgrade.
After Sondermeier's history-making flight, share subscriptions started furiously. A total of 412 shareholders were registered, among which were Vračarska zadruga, Poštanska štedionica, Srpska banka from Zagreb, Amerikansko-srpska banka from Sarajevo, Teleoptik, Ikarus and many others. Four French "Potez-29" airplanes were purchased from the collected money, and the company named Aeroput officially started operating by being registered in the register of the commercial court on June 17, 1927. The completion of the Zemun airport in March of the same year, with four grass runways and subsequently installed equipment for landing in conditions of poor visibility, went to the Company. However, there were no commercial flights during 1927 due to the delay of the French in the delivery of the aircraft.
"Potez-29" was a more than solid passenger plane for that time, with two crew members and seats for five more passengers. It flew at a speed of 210 km/h and had a range of about 500 kilometers. The first promotional flight was carried out by the aircraft "Belgrade" with the designation X-SEB, on the Belgrade-Zagreb route on February 15, 1928. The pilots were Andreja Striževski and Tadija Sondermeyer, the director of Aeroput, and the first passengers were journalists and photojournalists. "The wheels are throwing mud in all directions," noted the "Politika" journalist, "while we are climbing and our plane is tilting in a spiral, it seems to us that we are not tilting, but as if the whole of Belgrade has tilted and is about to crash." in Sava."
The regular line operated until November, when the flights were interrupted due to bad weather conditions (which was also practiced in the following years). Despite the expensive tickets and people's great fear of flying, the occupancy of the planes was above 80 percent, and the regularity of flights was an enviable 99,5 percent. The total flight was over 150.000 kilometers and 1320 passengers, 7500 kg of luggage, 2500 kg of cargo and a small amount of mail were transported.
PEAK AND SHUTDOWN: Since then, Aeroput has recorded a slight but steady and sustainable growth. Since 1929, the company has been a member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The first international flight was made via Zagreb to Vienna, and the line to Skopje and Thessaloniki also opened. During 1931, the fleet was expanded and renewed with the acquisition of Farman 306 and two De Havilland (80A and 60Mot) for air taxi needs. The following year, a major global economic crisis hit Serbia as well, Aeroput's business volume fell by a third, but the company survived. An aircraft repair workshop was purchased from the Cidna company so that Aeroput could independently maintain its "move-29" fleet.
After the economic recovery that followed in 1933, the company began to invest in the purchase of light aircraft for a smaller number of passengers. The English three-engined Spartan Cruiser was chosen, and a total of three units were purchased. The last one was made in 1935 at the Zmaj factory: it cost half as much as imported ones, but it is remembered as the first passenger plane made in our country. Unfortunately, there was also a major accident when Aeroput's Farman crashed after taking off from Ljubljana, killing the pilot, mechanic and all six passengers. Since 1937, the fleet includes two American Lockheed Electras, with ten passenger seats, and two Kodron 448s were also ordered.
At its peak in 1938, Aeroput, both independently and in cooperation with other companies, flew to all four corners of the world: to the north to Budapest, Brno and Prague, to the west to Venice and Milan, to the south to Tirana, to the east to Bucharest and Sofia. Almost all major Yugoslav cities (Zagreb, Podgorica, Dubrovnik, Sarajevo, Ljubljana, Sušak–Rijeka, Split and Skopje) and some smaller ones (Bitolj, Borovo) are connected to Belgrade. Before World War II, Aeroput had a modern fleet of 14 planes (with seven Lockheeds as the backbone), which was served by a dozen pilots and five radio-telegraphers. During 1939, Aeroput flew 622.556 km on lines with a length of 4057 km. 2776 flights were made and 17.790 passengers, 185.729 kg of luggage, 81.091 kg of goods (mainly newspapers) and 16.913 kg of mail were transported.
Unfortunately, this is where the best part of the story ends. There is little information about Aeroput's operations after 1940. That year, despite the impressive figures that ranked Aeroput among the largest European carriers, was remembered as tragic because two Lockheeds and 18 lives were lost in accidents (the oldest Aeroput pilot also died on Velebit , Vladimir Strizhevsky). The following year, the war destroyed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and with it the business of the Airport: pilots and aircraft were mobilized into the war transport aviation, but most of the aircraft and aircraft engines were destroyed during the April 1942th bombing, when the Zemun airport was also badly damaged. Three Lockheeds were used to transport the head of state to Greece and Egypt and eventually ended up in the British fleet. In XNUMX, the occupation authorities banned the operation of the Airport, and the business premises and inventory were donated to the German Lufthansa.
Even after the war, Aeroput was not in better luck. As a joint-stock company, the company was considered a typical outgrowth of the failed state regime and capitalism, which the new authorities vigorously fought against. Although the work was formally renewed in July 1945 in the presence of the new government and its prominent representatives (Ivan Ribar was a shareholder and member of the pre-war Board of Directors), the decision remained a dead letter. Two years later, Yugoslav Aerotransport was founded as a company with a state monopoly, and Aeroput was formally closed on December 24, 1948, when a decision was made to prohibit the operation of all private joint-stock companies.
Aeroput's strength is best illustrated by the fact that the company started production of its own aircraft. We are talking about the MMS-3 aero-taxi, which was designed by the technical director of Milenko Mitrović Spirit in the mid-thirties (hence the abbreviation). The prototype was successfully tested in the wind tunnel in Paris in 1934, and the first prototype flew in January 1936. Already in the same year, the plane was included in regular traffic. It was a twin-engine high-wing aircraft made of wood and canvas, with a distinctive tail rack and a nacelle for the pilot and passengers suspended under the wing. The plane was popular for its quiet and quiet operation as well as the large glass surfaces that provided passengers with an outstanding panoramic view.
Although negotiations were conducted with several foreign companies about the production and sale of this aircraft, they never bore fruit, so the story ended with one example that went from prototype to operational use. Today, it is not known exactly what happened to the plane. According to some, it was destroyed in Trebinje during the retreat of the royal army in 1941. According to other sources, the plane was taken over by the air force just before the outbreak of war as a means of communication and terrain reconnaissance. The plane was destroyed by the crew in Valjevo so that it would not fall into the hands of the enemy after engineer Mitrović took a picture with him for the last time.
From the pre-war days, the great friendship of Tadija Sondermeier with Miloš Crnjanski, who was also a lover of aviation and a long-time editor of the magazine "Naša krila", will be recorded. During a meeting at the air force headquarters, Crnjanski had a heated argument with Sondermeier and four other officers, claiming that French airplanes were better than German ones. In order to push the matter to the end, Crnjanski theatrically slapped the officers with his white gloves and challenged them all to a duel. The officers refused him, not wanting to "use up" Crnjanski in an unequal duel, but Sondermeier accepted to defend his officer's honor.
The duel was held on September 26, 1926 in the vicinity of Vršac where, according to the old laws of Austria-Hungary, the duel was still considered an act of chivalry. The fight was conducted in a gentlemanly manner, with minutes being taken and the presence of second-in-command (Crnjanski was represented by director Branko Gavela and writer Dušan Matić), with trophy weapons borrowed from the Dunđerski family for the occasion. Crnjanski shot first and, as expected, missed badly. However, sources differ on how the duel ended. According to one, Sondermeier briefly took aim at Crnjanski and then lowered his gun and said in French: "I give up, you are forgiven." At Crnjanski's fervent insistence that the duel continue, Sondermeier fired a shot in the air and left. According to others, Sondermeyer did not just give his life to Crnjanski. He tried to fire three times from the holster, but without success because, unprepared, instead of a rose, he squeezed the mother-of-pearl decoration under it. Dušan Matić intervened and asked both of them to accept satisfaction and a draw. Sondermeier was allowed to fire into the air until it was determined that his weapon was correct.
Anyway, both Crnjanski and Sondermeyer survived and their friendship was renewed.
Although Serbia knows how to love and remember its greats, sometimes this memory is superficial and short-lived, and sometimes it is not there at all, just like in the case of Tadija Søndermeier, today's almost forgotten pioneer of Serbian civil aviation and long-time director of Aeroput. Tadija Sondermeyer was born in 1892 in Belgrade. Father Roman was of German-Polish origin and came to Belgrade in 1886 from Krakow. There he married Stanislava Đurić, daughter of General Dimitrije Đurić, with whom he had four children. Roman held the rank of medical colonel in the Serbian army and was remembered as one of the first military surgeons.
After the outbreak of the Balkan wars, Tadija left his studies in Germany and signed up as a volunteer in the Serbian army. The death of his brother Stanislav, who was killed in the Battle of Cerska in 1914, only strengthened his courageous spirit and strengthened his desire to stand out in the war. In April 1916, he joined the aviation units, in October he finished the reconnaissance course in Thessaloniki and then transferred to a squadron in the Wertherkorp. Although an excellent pilot, he did not get to stand out in air battles because he contracted malaria. He left the hospital on his own responsibility, completed a flight acrobatics course, and in March 1918 was accepted into the elite French aviation unit "Rode". As a patrol leader, he shot down several German planes, he was able to get out of critical situations solely with his piloting skills, but in the end he almost lost his life when his plane caught fire and crashed.
After the war, Taddija Sondermeier completed her interrupted studies and obtained a diploma in aeronautical engineering at the Higher School of Aeronautics in Paris. He used the acquired knowledge in Belgrade, where he enthusiastically engaged in the promotion of aviation. In 1922, he founded the Aero Club of the Kingdom of SHS and was its vice-president for many years, right next to Prince Pavle, who was at its head. When in 1927 the idea of establishing Aeroput, the first Yugoslav airline, was on the verge of failure, Sondermeyer found a way to encourage skeptical investors by designing and executing a propaganda stage flight on a Potez-25 plane from Paris to Bombay and back to Belgrade.
Tadija Sondermeyer was a successful director of Aeroput until the beginning of World War II, when the Germans occupied Serbia and liquidated the otherwise solid company. For his pre-war merits, Sondermeier was awarded the Order of the Star of Karađorđe with Swords, the Gold Medal for Courage and the French Legion of Honor.
The post-war communist authorities never forgave Sondermeier that before the war he was welcome at the court, often as an envoy in important state matters, and that during the war he remained in Belgrade and maintained contacts with the royal entourage. It was not taken into account that in 1944 he participated in the battles for the liberation of Belgrade and that he volunteered as a pilot. He was arrested and sentenced to death, and he was saved from the execution ground by Aleksandar Ranković on the initiative of Sondermeyer's wife, Milica. Later, his civil rights were restored and he was enabled to earn a modest living as a part-time engineer in the construction and urban planning company Polet. He was suppressed and forgotten, he was never involved in aviation again, and he appeared in public only once more, in 1967, on the fortieth anniversary of the founding of Aeroput. On the occasion of his jubilee, the management of Yugoslav Air Transport presented him with forty roses and a modest cash prize, which he did not even manage to spend. He died on October 10 of the same year in Belgrade.
Professor Radmila Tonković, also known as a publicist and long-time editor of "Aeromagazin", author of the only book about Tadija Søndermeier, is almost alone in her efforts to repay this Serbian patriot, engineer and aviation great of the homeland as it deserves. On two occasions, in 1998 and 2003, commemorative plaques were placed at the entrance of the Aero Club House in Uzun Mirkova, but vandals removed them both times, some say because of Sondermeier's origin. All initiatives to name one of Belgrade's streets after him also failed. In a year when the Serbian state admits that it no longer has staff capable of running a state-owned airline, perhaps it is time to refresh and preserve the memory of a man who was up to the challenge in every respect.
