Leyla Alasgar gizi Mammadbeyova

One of the most important historical figures in Azerbaijan that we want to introduce to you is Leyla Alasgar gizi Mammadbeyova. She was the first Azerbaijani female aviator (17 September 1909 – 4 July 1989). She was also Transcaucasia's, Southern Europe's, and Southwest Asia's first female pilot.

Huseyn Arablinski, one of Azerbaijan's pioneer film actors, was Mammadbeyova's father, Alasgar Zeynalov. Her family was arts-oriented, and she could play the piano and tar as a teenager. At the age of 14, she married former landowner Bahram Mammadbeyov of Kurdakhany, who went on to become the head of Baku's Professional Unions Bank.

Mammadbeyova was trained as a professional aviator at the Baku Airclub and performed her first flight in 1931. She continued her education at an aviator school in Moscow in 1932. Mammadbeyova became the Soviet Union's second female parachutist (after Nina Kamneva) on March 17, 1933, when she leaped from a Polikarpov Po-2 plane at Moscow's Tushino Airfield. In 1934, she won a parachute jump competition among South Caucasus nations. By 1941, she was the Soviet Army's Squadron Leader.

Leyla Mammadbeyova established herself as a living icon while still in her twenties. Her bravery and abilities were lauded in the media and the arts. Her character influenced Mikayil Mushfig's (Afshan, 1933 and Shoyla, 1934) and Samad Vurgun's (Leyla, 1935) works, as well as the film Ismat (dir. Mikayil Mikayilov, 1934). Azerbaijantelefilm released Leyla, a documentary on Mammadbeyova's life and career directed by Nazim Rza Israfiloglu, in 1995.