A bust of Sabiha Gökçen stands in the Istanbul Aviation Museum’s gardens, honoring the first female Turkish pilot and the first female fighter pilot in the world. It is one of the few statues honoring a woman in Turkey. Gökçen (1913-2001)was an orphan. Some rumors said she was Armenian, but the common belief is that she was of Bosniak ancestry. When she was 12 years old, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, and its first president, adopted her. He provided her with a good education as part of his vision to promote modernization and equality for women in Turkey. When he saw her excitement and desire to become a skydiver and a pilot, he enrolled her in the Türkkuşu (Turkishbird) Flight School as the first female student. After earning her pilot license. She did several advanced courses and started flying solo on February 25th, 1936. Her father sent her to advance classes, which destined her to become a combat pilot. Since the Turkish War Academies could not accept her due to her gender, she did her training in a unique program designed for her. At 23 years old, she started taking part in military operations, becoming the first female combat pilot globally. She received several awards and medals for her bravery and performance, became a flight instructor, and trained four female pilots. Her milestones – the first solo flight in 1936 and the five-day flight around the Balkans in 1938, were celebrated and got a lot of media attention in Turkey, inspiring many girls and women. She retired from the army in 1955 in the rank of lieutenant and in 1964 from flying. Overall she flew 8,000 hours and participated in 32 different military operations around the world. She is considered a legend in Turkey, the Turkish version of Amelia Earhart. Several places in Turkey are named in her honor. One of which is the -Sabiha Gökçen Airport, the second airport in Istanbul. Read more...