Sabiha Gökçen (1913-2001)

Sabiha Gökçen is acclaimed as a model of progressive Turkish womanhood and Turkish schoolgirls grow up learning the story of her life.

- Joseph Noronha

ON FEBRUARY 19, 2018, FLYING OFFICER AVANI CHATURVEDI of the Indian Air Force made history by becoming the first Indian woman pilot to complete a solo flight on a fighter aircraft, the MiG-21 Bison. Her feat brings back memories of other first ladies of military aviation.

Opinion is divided on who the world’s first woman combat pilot was, but most military historians agree that Sabiha Gökçen of Turkey achieved that distinction in 1936. Their belief is shared by Guinness World Records which lists her as “the first Turkish, female aviator and the world’s first, female, combat pilot.” Before Sabiha Gökçen, there was Marie Marvingt of France. She was not a combat pilot, but appears to have performed the world’s first aerial bombing mission by a woman, in 1915, Russia’s Nedeshda Degtereva became the first woman pilot to be wounded in combat while flying a reconnaissance mission over the Austrian front.

The story of how Sabiha Gökçen became the world’s first female combat pilot is interesting. She was born on March 22, 1913, in Bursa, part of the then Ottoman Empire. She lost both parents at an early age but her education was supported by her brother, despite the poverty of the family. Her life changed when she was twelve thanks to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.