The First Serbian Aircraft Factory

On 22 April 1924 the industrialist Živojin Rogožarski founded the First Serbian Aircraft Factory in Belgrade. At first it repaired aircraft confiscated after the First World War; within a year it flew its first production type, the F1V trainer, of which 37 were built. With Ikarus it went on to carry most of Yugoslavia’s interwar aircraft industry, building its own designs alongside licensed Polish RWD light aircraft and, on the eve of war, Hawker Hurricanes.

Trainers for a kingdom

Trainers were its bread and butter. The PVT parasol advanced trainer, probably first flown in 1934, ran to 61 aircraft; the R-100 fighter trainer to 26; the SIM-X sports and training monoplane to 21. Many came from Sima Milutinović, the designer who ran the company from 1934. There were also seaplanes, including the twin-engined SIM-XIV-H floatplane bomber, and a 1940 light bomber prototype, the R-313. In 1938 alone the factory flew the IK-3, the R-100, the SIM-XI, the SIM-XII-H and the SIM-XIV-H.

Thirteen fighters against an invasion

Its most famous aircraft was the IK-3, a sleek low-wing fighter by Ljubomir Ilić, Kosta Sivčev and Slobodan Zrnić, armed with a hub-firing 20 mm cannon. The prototype flew in May 1938 and crashed in January 1939, killing its pilot, but twelve production aircraft followed. When the Axis invaded on 6 April 1941, six serviceable IK-3s of the 51st Fighter Group at Zemun claimed 11 enemy aircraft in the 11-day war. In 1946 the nationalised factory was merged with Zmaj into Ikarus. In all, Rogožarski had built 286 aircraft.

Fabrikalar

• Belgrade works · Belgrade — Final assembly at the company hangar at Zemun

İnsanlar

• Živojin Rogožarski · founder and manager 1925–1934
• Sima Milutinović · designer and manager 1934–1941
• Ljubomir Ilić, Kosta Sivčev and Slobodan Zrnić · designers of the IK-3