Zuleykha Seyidmammadova

Zuleykha Seyidmammadova
Züleyxa Seyidməmmədova
Born22 March 1919
Baku, Azerbaijan DR
Died10 November 1994 (aged 75)
Baku, Azerbaijan
Allegiance Soviet Union
Branch Soviet Air Force
Years of service1941–1945
RankCaptain
Unit586th Fighter Aviation Regiment
Battles / warsEastern Front of World War II
AwardsOrder of Lenin

Zuleykha Seyidmammadova (Azerbaijani: Züleyxa Mirhəbib qızı Seyidməmmədova, Russian: Зулейха Мир-Габиб кызы Сеидмамедова; 22 March 1919 – 1994) was one of the first Azerbaijani female pilots, and the first Azerbaijani woman to fly in combat.

Seyidmammadova was born in Baku on 22 March 1919. She gained her pilot's license in 1935 at a flying club in her hometown, and later at the aviation academy in Zhukovsky near Moscow. In 1938 she became qualified as a petrochemical engineer but chose to pursue aviation as her main career.

During World War II, she was the regimental navigator of the 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment, one of the three women's military aviation regiments founded by Marina Raskova. Throughout the war, she fought in over 40 aerial battles and carried out over 500 missions. During the war, she would inform the commissar as well as Tamara Kazarinova, the commander of her regiment, about the pilots' attitudes toward their leadership.

After the war, she was demobilized and in 1952 she became the Minister of Social Security of the Azerbaijan SSR. Seyidmammadova died in Baku in 1994.

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