[FIRST FEMALE TURKISH PARACHUTIST] Original photograph of Yildiz Eruçman

YILDIZ KAYALAR ERUÇMAN, (The first female parachutist of Turkey), (1919-)., N. p., [ca. 1930s].

Original b/w photograph. 8,5x13,5 cm. Shows Yildiz Eruçman and twelve male parachutists, aviators and an aircraft wing with its shadow on the surface. 

Yildiz Kayalar Eruçman was the first Turkish female parachutist. She was born in Thessaloniki, Kingdom of Greece in 1919. Her family was of Turkish descent, and according to the Population exchange agreement between Turkey and Greece, her family moved to Turkey and settled in Izmir in 1924. In 1934, after the Surname Law, the family assumed the surname Kayalar. Eruçman is her surname by marriage. In 1935, after reading an article in a foreign periodical about female pilots, she applied to the training center of the Turkish Aeronautical Association in Ankara. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's adopted daughter and aviator Sabiha Gökçen personally concerned herself with Eruçman's training. Together with three other women in the training center, namely Edibe Subasi, Nezihe Viranyali, and Sahavet Karapas, she received her aviation certificate. On 4 October 1935, she parachuted from a Soviet-made aircraft of type Polikarpov R-5. She was the first-ever female skydiver in Turkey. In later years, she continued in the same association as a trainer. However, her profession was not officially acknowledged. So, her title was "minaret worker", which was considered one of the most dangerous occupations of that time.

A fine and extremely rare image.

# Turkish aviation Rare photographs Parachute Women