The Zagreb daily newspaper "NOVOSTI" published an article to announce the establishment of the Croatian Aeronautical Society or The Aeronautic Club on 13th October 1909.

Four days later, the same newspaper asked the citizens of Zagreb to support the establishment of the aeronautical association, but without any response.

A year later, on the military grounds in Črnomerec (Zagreb), an inventor engineer Slavoljub Penkala (1871-1922), built his aircraft, almost single- handedly, based on his ideas and plans. With his assistant Dragutin Novak (1892-1978), who at that time was 19 years old, Mr. Penkala performed the first jumps and flights.

In the year 1924, in "JUTARNJI LIST"- a Zagreb daily, dated 14th December, an article with an invitation for "..anyone who has interest in aviation to come on Tuesday 16th this month at 9p.m. at Trgovački dom!" was published. Another Zagreb daily- "NOVOSTI" published a similar invitation, stating that the founding of the Aeroclub in Zagreb should contribute to establishing the air traffic between Zagreb and other cities in the country and abroad.

A call for a meeting regarding the Aeroclub’s establishment was announced by "OBZOR", and "NOVOSTI" (on 16th December the same year) announced that the constitutive assembly was held at Trgovački dom in Zagreb. This is why 16th December 1924 is considered to be the day of the founding of the Aeroclub Zagreb.

Approximately thirty noble citizens from various walks of life- pilots, businessmen, engineers and aviation enthusiasts got together to form the Aeroclub’s Steering committee.

The information was taken from Mr. Zdenko Jureša, a pilot and an enthusiastic collector of historic materials about aviation and Aeroclub Zagreb, and his collection of written materials.

Krešimir Varljen, pilot and founder of the Aeroclub Zagreb’s Veteran Section

Krešimir Varljen, pilot and founder of Aeroclub Zagreb Veteran Section

NOVAK, Dragutin (born February 16 1892 in Zagreb; died October 31, 1978 in Zagreb)
After the death of his parents, he moved to Tropava, where he finished the school for fine mechanics. When he finished, he returned to Zagreb, where he meets ing. Penkala.
In these years, specially after 1903, aeronautics starts being very interesting matter in the world, specially after July 23, 1909, when Louis Bleriot made his flight over La Manche.
As ing. Penkala was obsessed by the idea of flight in that time, he had a great cooperation with young Dragutin Novak, who helped in building of the first airplane. Later in the 1910, he made a series of more or less successful flights with Penkala's airplane on Črnomerec airfield, specally after Penkala left the work.
Dragutin Novak demonstrated his skill on various occasions, both nationally and internationally, where he regularly took the first prizes. As a special mention are the airshows in Budapest 1912 and Graz 1913, where two consecutive victories assured him a position as one of the top european pilots.
During the WWI he was mobilized by the Austrian Military as a well-known and respected flight instructor, as well as fighter pilot.
After the WWI in Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, he couldn't get a place in aeronautics, so he worked for long time in the power plant in Križevci, and later as bus and taxi carrier.

PENKALA, Slavoljub Eduard (born April 20 1871, Liptovsky Mikulás, Slovakia; died February 5 1922, Zagreb, Croatia)
After finishing college in Vienna and Dresden, where he graduated in Royal Techical Facolty. After that, he chose to settle with family in Zagreb, in today's King Tomislav Square.
With chemistry as his master degree, he took the post in public service in 1904, invented the lead pencil, fountail pen (patented in 1906) and constructed the first airplane in this region (1909).
Among his other inventions are thermos-flask, rotating toothbrush, wagon brakes, flux measuring apparatus, anode batteries, dynamometer, manometer, ebonite (plastic material for making of LPs), etc.
Parallel to these accomplishments, ing. Penkala has intensively been working in the field of aeronautics. In Royal Patent Office in Budapest he patented the construction of his airplane on December 12 1909, building the first Croatian airplane during the 1910. While building the airplane, a hangar was made on the military training ground on Crnomerec, where he opened the first airfield in this part of Europe. Meanwhile, he was instructing and teaching the future first Croatian pilot, Dragutin Novak. After only one unsuccessful attempt in which the airplane was smashed, he quit the project. The hangar was sold to Mihael Merčep, a photographer and sportsman, who started building airplanes with Slovene brothers Eduard and Joško Rusjan.
In 1911. Penkala completely leaves the aeronautics and puts his time into attempts of reviving the industry in surroundings of Zagreb. On February 5 1922 he suddenly died of pneumonia.