His parents were both natives of the Gorizia and Gradisca region: his father, Franc Rusjan, was a Slovene, and his mother, Grazia Cabas, was Friulan.

Rusjan first attended a public flight event with the model EDA V on 6 December 1909, when his aircraft broke apart at landing.

In 1910 Edvard Rusjan met the businessman Mihajlo Merćep from Zagreb, Croatia (then part of Austria-Hungary), who offered him financial help for his endeavors.

The same year, the brothers moved to Zagreb, Croatia, when they started a project of airplane construction on larger scale together with first Croatian pilot Dragutin Novak, who flew before with Eduard Slavoljub Penkala.

27 December 1910] a strong wind broke a wing of Edvard's aeroplane and it dived into a railway embankment near the Belgrade Fortress in a fatal crash.