Polina Osipenko

Polina Denisovna Osipenko (Russian: Полина Денисовна Осипенко, Ukrainian: Поліна Денисівна Осипенко, October 8, 1907, Novospasovka, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Russian Empire — May 11, 1939) was a Soviet military pilot, most notable as the second pilot who, together with Valentina Grizodubova and Marina Raskova on September 24–25, 1938 performed a non-stop flight between Moscow and the Sea of Okhotsk, setting a new distance record for non-stop flights operated by women. For this achievement, she became a Hero of the Soviet Union, the highest military distinction in Soviet Union, one of the three first women (along with Grizodubova and Raskova) to receive the distinction. Osipenko was killed in 1939 together with Anatoly Serov during a routine flight.

Osipenko was born in 1907 in Novospasovka, Yekaterinoslav Governorate (currently Zaporizhia Oblast of Ukraine) in a peasant family of Ukrainian ethnicity as Polina Dudnik. Until 1930, she was working on a collective farm. Between 1930 and 1933, Osipenko was a student in the Kazan Flight School, subsequently she served as officer, flying a fighter. In 1937, she set three world records for altitude. In October 1937, Osipenko and Raskova set the women's flight distance record by flying from Moscow to Aktobe (1,444.722 kilometres (897.709 mi)), and in July 1938, Osipenko, Vera Lomako, and Raskova set a new record by flying non-stop from Sevastopol to Arkhangelsk in a Beriev MP-1.

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