BULGARIAN PILOTS WOMEN

Maria Georgieva Atanа̀sova (December 26, 1926 — April  11, 2000) Maria is a Bulgarian pilot, the world's first female commander of heavy airplane, the first Bulgarian civilian pilot. She was born in Kalekovets, Plovdiv region on December 26, 1926. In 1950 she graduated from the first group of female-pilots of the Higher National Air Defense School in Dolna Mitropolia. Until 1952, he worked as an instructor at the school. Then he graduated from the Fighter Pilots School. Between 1953 and 1974 she flew as pilot and commander of the aircrafts "Li-2", "Il-14", "Il-18" and "Tu-134" on the routes of BGA Balkan. Its total flight is 13 999 hours. In 1965, she became the first woman to land a passenger plane at London's Heathrow Airport under extreme conditions. In 1966-1971 he was a member of the 5th National Assembly.

The first woman in the world to participate in a combat flight is the Bulgarian woman Rayna Vasileva Kassabova. This historic event took place at the end of October 1912 with a "Voyazen" plane with commander Lieutenant Stefan Kalinov and mechanic Iliya Mladenov. The flight takes 43 minutes. From the plane Raina throws leaflets – calls to stop the bloodshed over the positions of the enemy in Edirne. The city is besieged by the Bulgarian army and many rumors spread among the population that the siege will soon end and that the Turkish army has captured Plovdiv and advance towards Sofia. That is why the Bulgarian Command draws out leaflets in Turkish and French, which inform Edrins about their real situation – that the fortress will soon be taked by assault and that any further following vain victim can be avoided by capitulation. It is these leaflets that cast Raina Kassabova from the sky. Her flight quickly became known and in 1963 when Valentina Tereshkova visited Bulgaria (the first cosmonaut woman from the USSR) went to meet her personally. On her name is named glacier on Antarctica in Graham Earth – Glacier Kasabova!

The Bulgarian woman Valentina Tsvetkova is the only female pilot on government plane. She's not just a successful woman. She is brave and very strong. The blue-eyed lady manages the government's "Falcon 2000" for 15 years now. But the road to the clouds was difficult.

"This is my favorite "Falcon 2000". For me this is the best product in the aviation industry in this class. I do not know in the moment what I would think of when I no longer look at it and be in it. We are one whole", says Valentina Tsvetkova.

She calls the plane a real friend. She believes flying with him is her mission. "Since I became a reasonable person, I have always dreamed of flying. There was no other desire for me", she says.

However, she does not get support from her parents to carry out her dream. "In those years nobody could not me support. I'm from a village in Kyustendil, there are no pilots in my family. As a pupil I did not share with anyone about my intentions and desires. I was just assembling my planes and secretly dreaming that I would fly someday. I started with parachuting, then I started at the aero club as a sports pilot because there was no other option. There were no female pilots in the aviation school in Dolna Mitropolia… When my father find out that I had 37 jumps, he beat me up. I went to the airport again in the morning, but after that my father was the man who always supported me", remembers Valentina Tsvetkova.

The first woman pilot on a military jet is Emilia Garbova. She has flown 30 years in military and sport aviation, completed 12,321 flights with 3,450 hours of military flight instructor first class. Emilia Garbova has trained pilots with whom to build an entire aviation base. In the last days of 1947, three Bulgarian women graduated from Military-Air School in Dolna Mitropolia and they became the first female pilots in Bulgaria. The three were made in the rank of Junior Lieutenant and were assigned to Civil Aviation.

The first flight of a woman with a engineless airplane in Bulgaria is accomplished by Maria Stefanova-Markova. She took her first exam for a engineless airliner on July 24, 1938 on a Tölgling-33 airplane. Maria Markova owns a personal card for engineless airliner #H66/1938 y. and flight license Х42/1938 y.

The first female airman that flew independently on a motor plane is Maria Bogdanova Nedyalkova from Pirdop city. This event for Bulgarian aviation took place on September 4, 1947 y.

The second female pilots are Teofana Antonova Krill (September 7) and Dora Vasileva Motchkova from Knezha city (September 13). Teofana Krill was born February 6, 1931 in Gabrovo. She inherited the patriotism of her grandfather who was a volunteer, the fearlessness of her mother and the will of her father Anton Krill (the only known in Gabrovo city as freemason). Teofana yearns of flying from its childhood.

She loved to go up to Radichevets in Gabrovo to send the sunset. As she stood staring at the beautiful landscape at sunset, nocks of frightened birds flew out of the forest, disappearing into the azure. The little blond girl with clear blue eyes suffered that she had no wings and could not fly like them. She was an excellent student at the Aprilov High School, engaged in music in her spare time.

In May 1946, some students in parachutism were gathered at the Aprilov High School in Gabrovo. "Teofana Krill was the first enrolled in the course and her happy eyes showed courage and happiness," says her teacher Mihail Hristov. Teofana Krill became the most zealous and most active of the founders of Airsport Society "Swallow", founded in June 1946. Neither her mother's advice that it was "a man's job," her grandmother's weeping did not rising to a "tree without roots" were able to dissuade her.

On July 22, 1946, she made her first jump from 800 meters with parachute. She fly off from Gorna Oryahovitsa and landed at Pop Raikova Livada near Gabrovo. Teofana herself tells in Airspace newspaper (No.1/26.12.1946): "The joy of parachuting me to be one of the first female parachutists in our country was a great pride and I jealously kept her inside, you're afraid that someone will take it away".

"The plane rose – proud, powerful. Far from us was the airport from which we took off. Then the siren whistled, and I could not figure out how I jumped out of the machine. The air jet grabbed me. I flew like a leaf in a strong wind. A moment, and I felt strongly pulling and lifting up. I looked at the sky. My parachute had dissolved and now he seemed so kind and dear to me."

"Oh, there is nothing more pleasant than swimming freely in the air, being a master in the sky, admiring the view underneath you". Then they followed many leaps in Kazanlak, where for the talisman the others were stealing her handkerchiefs and snapping knobs from her garments.

In 1947 he graduated the Military-Air School in Dolna Mitropolia. A junior pilot in Civil Aviation at Vrajdebna Airport (Sofia District) is appointed. Unfortunately, Bulgarian aviation does not enjoy long its courage and professionalism, because Teofana Krill dies very young (24 years old) on September 4, 1955, in Varna, just after she gave birth to her son.

Her brother Emil Krill lives in Gabrovo and deals with patents. He is the chairman of the Friends of Germany association, thanks to which Gabrovo has links with the city of Mitvaida and a useful partnership between Gabrovo Technical University and the Technical University of Mitvaida.

One of the first womens in Bulgarian aviation is Marina Popovic, called by her colleagues "Madame MIG" (name of Soviet brands of jet-fighters "MIG"), Maria Atanasova and Deska Nedyalkova.

The first woman in the Bulgarian Army, produced in the rank of Brigadier General in 1974, is Polina Antonova Nedyalkova, former volunteer in the Civil War in Spain.