CROATIA MARKS 90TH ANNIVERSARY SINCE ITS FIRST PLANE TOOK OFF

ZAGREB, June 24 (Hina) - Zagreb's Technical Museum on Friday marked the 90th anniversary of the first Croatian aeroplane's taking off. Inventor Slavoljub Penkala took off in a plane he had built himself in front of an admiring crowd of Zagreb's residents on 23 June 1910. The media of the time proclaimed the event "the most significant day in the history of aviation development in Croatia." On this occasion, the Technical Museum in Zagreb staged an exhibition entitled "Conquering the Sky", at which the Slavoljub Penkala model-building club from Zagreb with its own glider models depicted the historical conquest of the sky's expanse. A unique and valuable museum exhibit was on this occasion for the first time placed in the museum's yard, the oldest Croatian aeroplane, the Fizir F.N. from 1933. The Technical Museum would like to attract the public's attention and urge them to assist in reconstructing the plane. The Fizir F.N. plane was constructed by Rudolf Fizir, an engineer who also built several prototypes of the first domestic training planes. The Fizir F.N. was a biplane used as a training and sport two-seat which could fly between 60 and 130km/h and reach 4,000m in altitude. (hina) ha jn