Vera Mityagina
soviet pilot during World War II
Vera Fedorovna Demina née Mityagina (Russian: Вера Федоровна Демина (Митягина); 1911–1984) was a Soviet airship pilot. At the age of 28, Mityagina became the first woman to command an airship. In 1937, she commanded a female flight crew on the Soviet USSR-V1 airship.
Early life
Mityagina began as a telephone operator in Moscow. While working, she attended the flight school of Osoaviakhim (Society for the Promotion of Defense, Aviation and Chemical Construction), where she attended courses on airship control. After studying in the classroom, Mityagina first flew balloons then later was allowed to fly airships.
In her first flight in a balloon, an accident occurred at 6,500 feet when the canvas of the balloon caught fire. Under the direction of her commander, Mityagina successfully cut free a portion of the canvas and was able to safely land on the ground with an improvised parachute.
Mityagina graduated from flight school in 1932.
Personal life
Mityagina married Soviet airship commander Sergey Demin.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q106782999. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1911, 1984, 1937 and 1932.
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This entry incorporates text from “Vera Mityagina” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.