Nickname(s) Raya Role Fighter pilot Allegiance Soviet Union Name Raisa Belyayeva Service/branch Soviet Air Forces | Battles/wars World War II Battles and wars World War II Years of service 1941–1943 Died 1943 | |
Unit 586th Fighter Regiment
437th Fighter regiment Similar People Nikolai Fyodorovich Vatutin, Aleksandr Vasilevsky, Gusztav Jany, Joseph Stalin, Italo Gariboldi | ||
Raisa Vasil'evna Beliaeva was one of the first Russian female fighter pilots. She fought alongside Lydia Litvyak and was credited with three aerial victories. She died in combat, from causes unknown, in 1943.
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Early life
Belyayeva attended a technical institute for tanners in Kirov. After graduation she asked her old friend Olga Yamshchikova, a Leningrad flight instructor, to teach her to fly. Belyayeva soon proved herself an enthusiastic and indefatigable alumna. Before the war, she accumulated more than a 1,000 hours flight time and a hundred parachute jumps, instructing hundreds of parachutists. She also took part in many airshows over Tushino airfield, near Moscow.
Military career
She took part in the Battle of Stalingrad and flew as an escort pilot for Khrushchev.
Belyayeya died in a crash on July 19, 1943.