Atyrau International Airport to be named after legendary Kazakh female war pilot Dospanova

The Atyrau International Airport will be named after the legendary Kazakh pilot Khiuaz Dospanova that participated in the Great Patriotic War (WWII), Tengrinews reports citing Ak Zhaiyk.

According to the Vice-Director of the Airport Zhanyl Umbetiyarova, Atyrau Oblast Akimat (Municipal authorities) sent a letter suggesting to name the airport after the only female Kazakh pilot Dospanova who fought against fascism. The Airport administration supported the idea.

In 2012, Air Astana’s Embraer 190 airplane was named after Dospanova.

The future pilot was born in on May 16, 1922 in Ganyushkino village in the Western Kazakhstan. In 1940 she graduated from middle school in Uralsk and along with the diploma Khiuaz received a pilot certificate from a local flying club. The young women left for the war in 1942. She served at the 588th Bombardment Wing and completed missions in North Caucasus, Trans Caucasus, Ukraine and Belarus. Dospanova was awarded the Order of the Red Star, the Patriotic War Order of the 2nd degree, the Order of the Red Banner and medals For Defense of Caucasus, For Liberation of Warsaw, Victory over Germany and others.

Khiuaz returned from the war as a disabled person of group II with consolidated fractures of both legs. She began an active public life and graduated from the Higher Party School in Almaty. Dospanova’s journey started from a combat pilot, a instructor at the Western Kazakhstan District Party Committee to the secretary of the Central Committee at the Lenin’s Young Communist League.

Khiuaz had to retire before she reached the age of 40 due to health issues caused by war and blast injuries. She passed away in 2008. President Nursulatan Nazarbayev awarded Dospanova the title Khalyk Kakharmany (People’s Hero).

By Gyuzel Kamalova