A figure of aerobatics. The best pilot of the century Svetlana Kapanina

A figure of aerobatics. The best pilot of the century Svetlana Kapanina

A beauty who ruins all stereotypes about blondes at the helm.

The plane circling over the Kazanka River suddenly makes a dead loop, freezes in the air, and then rushes down in free flight, leveling off 10 meters from the water. Watching such skill is a special treat. The thought that inside, at the helm, a delicate and fragile blonde, seems somehow quite unbelievable. But it is. In the cockpit is Svetlana Kapanina, the absolute world champion in aerobatics. This time she flew to the Red Bull Air Race in Kazan to surprise the audience and give them the opportunity to enjoy her magnificent show in the air.

On December 28 last year Svetlana celebrated a double anniversary. The world champion turned 50 years old, 30 of which she has been conquering the sky – and this is a special number.

“Siberian Angel”, as Kapanina is called by the British, got into aviation quite by accident. In her youth, the girl was fond of artistic gymnastics, and even fulfilled the standard of candidate master of sports of the USSR. But after graduating from school, Svetlana chose for herself the path to medicine and graduated from college with a specialty of “pharmacy”. But where did airplanes come from? It’s hard to believe, but when the fragile girl caught fire with the dream of jumping with a parachute, she accidentally mixed up the record and got into airplane sports. Then she quit the pharmacy and went to work as a communications technician-electrician in the Kurgan aviaclub.

She recalls her first flight as follows: “Actually, it was a bit boring, because it was low cloud cover, we were flying in formation, and we didn’t manage to try ourselves in aerobatics. But the second flight was unforgettable – when they landed me and took me for a ride on the pilotage (it was my trainer – Solodovnikov Leonid Arkadyevich), I had a pleasant shock, the sky and the earth were rotating, everything was spinning around. Great sensations”.

Now Svetlana Kapanina is considered one of the most titled female pilots on the planet. She became the world champion 39 times in separate kinds of program, seven times – the absolute champion. In addition, Svetlana was awarded the FAI (International Aviation Federation) personal medal as the best pilot of the century, and in 2014 Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded her the Order of Courage.

Interestingly, the main author-singer of songs on the theme of aviation Nikolai Anisimov, dedicated one of them to Kapanina:

We are over the dot, like a comet, like a corps de ballet star and with a desperate greeting, I say goodbye to this light. I won’t understand – where is the planet, too close, near somewhere. What are you doing, Sveta!