Nina Raspopova

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Nina Maksimovna Raspopova (1913–2009) was a Soviet pilot and flight commander who served in the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment during World War II. She survived being shot down twice in a Po-2 biplane and was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union in 1946.

She was born on December 31, 1913, in Magdagachi, Russia, into a peasant family. Her mother died when Nina was ten. She started mining school at fifteen and later graduated from Blagoveshchensk Mining School. She trained as a pilot at the Khabarovsk Flight School, finishing in 1933, and was one of only a few women in the program. Before joining the military, she worked as a geologist and as a flight instructor in several clubs, including Spassk, Omsk, and Mytishchi. At the Omsk aeroclub she flew gliders and airplanes and did parachuting practice.

Raspopova joined the Soviet military in October 1941 after the German invasion. After training in Engels, she was sent to the front in May 1942 with the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, which later became the Guards unit and was renamed the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment.

On at least two missions in 1942, her Po-2 was damaged by anti-aircraft fire. In one case she steered into a steep dive to avoid more fire and landed safely after the oil tank was punctured. In another mission, a fuel tank exploded and injured her navigator; they landed on a minefield but were rescued and she returned to duty after surgery within two months. She also survived another near-miss during the Crimea campaign after an emergency landing near a trench and avoided a mine.

During the war she flew 805 sorties, sometimes up to eight per night, dropping 110 tons of bombs. She helped destroy ferries, a railroad section, a searchlight, a depot, and military vehicles, and she helped repulse three artillery battalions.

After the war she did not continue flying. She stayed connected with her fellow pilots and worked as a secretary for a local council. Nina Raspopova died on July 2, 2009, in Mytishchi, near Moscow, at the age of 95.