Basharat Mirbabayeva
Basharat Mirbabayeva (, ; 5 December 1916 20 March 2010) was a locomotive operator in the Uzbek SSR. In addition to being the first woman in the Uzbek SSR to drive a train, she was also the first Uzbek woman to parachute from an airplane. Early life Born in Almaty on 5 December 1916. Little is known about her early life or even when she moved to the Uzbek SSR before her rise to fame. In the mid 1930’s she attended the local aeroclub while working as a radio operator for the railway in Tashkent. At the aeroclub, her instructor was Abdusamat Taymetov, the first Uzbek pilot. In August 1935 she became the first Uzbek woman to parachute from an airplane. Rail career In 1937 she graduated from training to be an assistant steam locomotive driver. Before studying to become a lead locomotive driver, Lazar Kaganovich urged women to train to drive steam locomotives, so she trained alongside 26 other women railway workers in Central Asia who entered the training to become a railway driver. In 1939 she drove a steam locomotive as the lead driver for the first time. Soon thereafter she created a women’s locomotive brigade to support