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Famous pilot Marina Popovich dies

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Famous pilot Marina Popovich dies


01.12.2017

A well-known female test pilot and record breaker Marina Popovich has died aged 86, RIA Novosti informs.

She was, in fact, the only woman who tried out dozens of different military transport aircrafts and who was the first to break the sound barrier during the test of fighter jet MiG-21 and was nicknamed Madam MiG for this record.

Aged 16, she could not enter Smolensk flying club due to her small height of just 150 cm, as she could not press pedals down. Then she asked her friends to hang her upside down with a load. In a year, she entered the flying club as she grew by 11 sm in this time. Legendary test pilot, by her own admission, added six years to her own age to enter the Air Force Academy.

In the epoch of jet aviation, training of professional female pilots was stopped in USSR. Only personal interference of Marshal Klim Voroshilov helped Marina Popovich to enter the Aviation technical college in Novosibirsk. She graduated from Leningrad Academy of Civil Aviation later.

The Soviet pilot broke more than one hundred various records, a part of them was set in the biggest propeller plane An-22. She became the only woman in USSR to make flights on this plane. She was on the job retired holding a rank of Colonel.

Marina Popovich was married for more than thirty years with Twice Hero of the Soviet Union pilot cosmonaut Pavel Popovich. Being a member of the Writers’ Union of Russia, she presented a doctoral thesis and was awarded with various orders and medals.

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