Marina Popovich facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Marina Popovich
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2014 photo
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Marina Lavrentievna Vasiliyeva
Марина Лаврентьевна Васильева 30 July 1931 Leonenki, Velizhsky District, Smolensk Oblast, USSR
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| Died | 30 November 2017 (aged 86) |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Occupation | pilot, author |
| Known for | 102 world records |
Marina Popovich was an amazing Soviet pilot, engineer, and a brave test pilot. She was born on July 30, 1931, and passed away on November 30, 2017.
In 1964, she became the first Soviet woman to fly faster than the speed of sound! This is called breaking the sound barrier. People called her "Madame MiG" because she worked with Soviet fighter jets. During her career, she set over 100 world aviation records in more than 40 different types of airplanes.
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Early Life and Training
Marina Vasilieva was born on July 30, 1931. Her family moved to Novosibirsk during World War II.
She started learning to fly when she was a child. After the war, women were not allowed to be military pilots in the Soviet Union. When she was 16, she pretended to be 22 years old. She wrote to a Soviet leader, Kliment Voroshilov, asking to join a flying school. He helped her, and she was accepted into the Novosibirsk Aviation Technicum. She finished her studies there in 1951.
Becoming a Pilot
Marina first worked as an engineer. Later, she became a flying instructor. In 1962, she joined the first group of women training to become cosmonauts. These women hoped to travel into space.
After two months, she was not chosen for the space program. Her husband, Pavel Popovich, was chosen. He became the eighth person in space in 1962.
In 1963, Marina became a pilot for the Soviet Air Force. A year later, in 1964, she became a military test pilot. On June 10, 1964, she broke the sound barrier in a MiG 21 jet.
Setting Records
Marina Popovich left the military in 1978. She then joined the Antonov Design Bureau as a test pilot. Here, she set ten flight records. She flew the Antonov An-22 turboprop, a very large airplane. She stopped flying professionally in 1984.
She wrote nine books and helped write two movie scripts. A star in the Cancer constellation is named after her.
Claims About UFOs
Marina Popovich also talked about her experiences with UFOs. She wrote about them in her book UFO Glasnost (published in 1991). She also gave public talks and interviews.
She claimed that Soviet military and civilian pilots saw UFOs about 3,000 times. She also said that the Soviet Air Force and KGB found pieces of five crashed UFOs. These crash sites were in places like Tunguska (1908) and Dalnegorsk (1986).
Family Life
Marina Popovich's first husband was Pavel Popovich. He was a Soviet cosmonaut. They had two daughters, Natalya and Oksana. Both of their daughters went to the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. Marina also had two granddaughters, Tatyana and Alexandra, and a grandson named Michael.
Her second husband was Boris Alexandrovich Zhikhorev. He was a retired Russian Air Force Major General.
Awards and Honors
- Order of the Red Banner of Labour
- Order of the Badge of Honour
- Honoured Master of Sports
- FAI Gold Air Medal
See also
In Spanish: Marina Popóvich para niños
- Nina Rusakova
- Olga Yamshchikova
- Jacqueline Cochran
