Mihajlo Petrović (pilot)

Mihajlo Petrović (Serbian Cyrillic: Михајло Петровић; 26 June [O.S. 14 June] 1884 – 20 March [O.S. 7 March] 1913) was a Serbian military pilot who flew in the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913.

A graduate of Serbia's Military Academy, Petrović was one of six Serbian military personnel selected to undergo training at Henri and Maurice Farman's flying school in Étampes, near Paris, in 1912. Following his completion of the Farman brothers' training program, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale issued Petrović with pilot's license #979, making him one of the first 1,000 pilots certified by the organization. Upon completing his training, Petrović returned to Serbia, together with the other newly certified Serbian pilots.

During the Siege of Scutari (modern-day Shkodër, Albania), Petrović was embedded with the nascent Serbian Air Force's newly formed Littoral Air Detachment, which was tasked with carrying out reconnaissance missions over the city and its surroundings. In March 1913, Petrović fell out of his Farman HF.20 while completing a mission over the city, and was killed. His death negatively affected the morale of his unit. Under pressure from the Great Powers, Montenegro and Serbia retreated from Scutari in May, the Littoral Air Detachment ceased conducting flights over the city and its pilots returned to Serbia.

Petrović was the first Serbian Air Force pilot to be killed in the line of duty and only the second such fatality in the history of military aviation. In September 2018, the air base adjacent to Niš Constantine the Great Airport was named after him.