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Body of legendary female test pilot Marina Popovich flown to Moscow

Marina Popovich set 102 aviation world records

Marina Popovich, 1964 Sergey Preobrazhensky/TASS

Marina Popovich, 1964

© Sergey Preobrazhensky/TASS

KRASNODAR, December 1. /TASS/. The body of legendary Soviet test pilot Marina Popovich, who died on Thursday at the age of 86, has been flown to Moscow by a military plane, a district official from southern Russia, where Popovich lived, told TASS.

"Everything has already been organized. Military pilots stepped in, and she was taken to Moscow on board a military plane," Krasnodar Region’s Mostovsky District administration chief Sergei Lasunov said.

He said the memorial ceremony for Popovich was held at the Mostovsky District on Thursday evening.

The official added that he had no information of when the ceremony in Moscow will be held.

During her carrier, Class 1 test pilot Marina Popovich, nicknamed "Madame MiG," tested more than 40 types of planes and helicopters. She was the first female pilot to break the sound barrier on a MiG-21fighter jet. She set 102 aviation world records, ten of them on the Antonov An-22 Antei heavy aircraft.

Marina Popovich was Merited Master of Sports of the USSR, doctor of engineering, professor and member of the Union of Russian Writers. She was decorated with numerous orders and medals for her achievements.

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