#Female fighter pilot license

Budanova was given permission to become a вЂњlone wolfвЂќ and do freelance operationsВ just like the best male pilots. It was when Budanova and Litvyak were moved to theВ 296th Fighter Aviation Regiment of Nikolai Baranov (or 73rd Fighter Aviation Regiment) that theyВ achieved the bulk of their combat claims. Her first two solo victories were against a Junkers Ju 88В and a Bf 109.Д«udanova and Litvyak later served with the elite 9th Guards Fighter Regiment, commanded by a Hero of the Soviet Union, Lev Shestakov, where they were allowed to remain for an extra three months after other women were returned to the 586th.В WhileВ Yekaterina was described as a вЂњcheerful, lively characterвЂќ, Litvyak looked вЂњthoughtful and quietвЂќ. This is where Yekaterina shot down her first opponent alongside Litvyak, a Messerschmitt Bf 109В fighter. On 10 September, Budanova was assigned with Lydia Litvyak, Mariya Kuznetsova and Raisa BelyayevaВ to the 437th Fighter Aviation Regiment, based on the east bank of the Volga river and in constant engagement with the fighting over Stalingrad. The units consisted usually of three women, usually instructors or members of pre-war flying clubs. Yekaterina enlisted in military aviation in June 1941, after the German attack on the USSR, and was assigned to the 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment, a unit consisting only of female pilotsВ and formed by Marina Raskova, record holder for a non-stop flight and survivor of a crash-landing in Siberia.

Still, the work that women were doing was mostly hidden by the governmentВ as they did not want the Red Army to appear weak, orВ raise womenвЂ™s expectations for permanent or front-line roles in the military. Even when the law proved to be more theoretical than practical and women faced harassment and disdain when enlisting, once they proved their ability to accomplish a number of tasks they quickly earned the respect of their commanders. It wasnвЂ™t until 1939 that a law on вЂњ universal military dutyвЂќ was passed, allowing women to be formally accepted into the military. During several air parades she joined, she flew a single-seater Yakovlev UT-1,В a single-seaterВ trainer aircraftВ used by theВ Soviet Air ForceВ from 1937 until the late 1940s.

#Female fighter pilot license

She first began working as a carpenter in an aircraft factory, where she developed an interest in aviation.В She soon joined a local aeroclubвЂ™s parachutist section andВ got her flying license in 1934, becoming a flight instructorВ in 1937. When she was thirteen, she was sent to Moscow to join her sister. She had top grades in school, but had to begin working as a nanny to care for her family after her fatherвЂ™s death. Yekaterina was born in 1916 in Smolensk, a village in Russia, to a peasant family.