Early Life
Budanova was born into a peasant family in Konoplanka village in Smolensk Oblast. After leaving elementary school with the highest grades, she had to abandon her studies due to her father's death, and began working as a nanny. At the age of thirteen her mother sent her to join her sister in Moscow, where she began working as a carpenter in an aircraft factory. It was there that she began an interest in aviation, and she joined an aeroclub's parachutist section, obtaining her flying licence in 1934 and graduating to flight instructor in 1937. She took part in several air parades, flying the single-seater Yakovlev UT-1.
Read more about this topic: Yekaterina Budanova
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