Marina Raskova
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Marina Mikhaylovna Raskova was the first woman in the Soviet Union to achieve the diploma of professional air navigator. Raskova went from a young woman with aspirations of becoming an opera singer to
A damaged and abandoned Po-2 forced to land in Ukrainian SSR and subsequently captured by German troops, 1941. On this type of aircraft, the Night Witches flew more than 24,000 sorties
Russian pilots and ground crew pose in front of a Pe-2 dive bomber at Poltava, June 1944. Marina Raskova died while flying this type of aircraft in a flying accident, near Stalingrad
Raskova's ashes were buried in the necropolis of the Moscow Kremlin Wall, beside Osipenko's
Soviet stamp, 1939
Polina Osipenko
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Polina Denisovna Osipenko was a Soviet military pilot who, with Valentina Grizodubova and Marina Raskova on 24–25 September 1938, performed a nonstop flight between Moscow and the Sea of Okhotsk, sett
Marina Raskova
…Russian for "Motherland"), Ant-37 – a converted DB-2 long range bomber – on 24–25 September 1938. She was the navigator of the crew that also included Polina Osipenko and Valentina Grizodubova. From the start, the goal was to set an international women's record for a straight-line distance flight. The plan was to fly…
Osipenko in 1938
Osipenko by an aircraft, 1936