Highlighting how her piloting experience taught her invaluable lessons and shaped her approach to life despite the challenges of the profession, Leman Bozkurt Altınçekiç, Türkiye’s and NATO’s first female jet aircraft pilot, emphasized the importance of women taking a more active role in aviation. She pursued her career with the awareness that her work was meaningful both for herself and for society and became an inspiration to the world through her lifelong dedication.
Leman Bozkurt was born in 1932. After graduating from Istanbul Atatürk Girls’ High School, she came across an announcement from Türkkuşu İnönü Flight School seeking parachutists. She passed the health examinations and tests, earning the right to apply. Upon being accepted to the school, she received training in model aircraft, glider flying, parachuting, and jumps between 1953 and 1954. Shortly after, she transferred to Türkkuşu Motorized Flight School in İnönü as a teacher candidate. During her training, she completed 140 hours of Magister flights and, on May 19, 1955, earned the “Turkish Aeronautical Association Türkkuşu National Amateur Parachutist Certificate.”
Her aviation career began at Türkkuşu, but her professional journey continued within the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF). In 1954, when women were officially allowed to join the TAF, 1955 became a turning point in her life. Leman Bozkurt was accepted into the Air Force Academy in İzmir, where she received pilot training and later underwent flight examinations in Eskişehir. Driven by her passion for aviation and her experience from Türkkuşu Flight School, she excelled in her training in Eskişehir.
At the age of 24, after training on propeller aircraft such as the Magister, T-34, T-6, and T-6G, she graduated first in her class from the Air Force Academy on August 30, 1957, becoming an officer.
Between 1957 and 1958, she made significant progress toward becoming a jet pilot. She served in the Jet Training Squadron in Eskişehir, where jet pilots were trained and conducted flight missions for the Turkish Air Force. In 1958, she received her jet badge, thus earning both the gold pilot badge and the titles of the first female jet pilot of Türkiye and of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization).
After serving about six years in Eskişehir, she flew F-84 and T-33 jet aircraft for nearly ten years. Her posts and duties throughout her career included:
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1964–1967: Operations Officer at İzmir Air Training Command Training Directorate
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1967–1968: Flight Instructor at the 2nd Main Jet Flight Training Command, Çiğli (İzmir)
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1968: Jet Pilot at Gaziemir Air Base
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1971–1975: Administrative Branch Chief at the 2nd Tactical Air Force Command Operations Directorate, Diyarbakır
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1975–1987: Held positions as Administrative Branch Chief, Personnel Directorate Planning Branch Chief, and Central Branch Chief at İzmir Air Training Command
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March 19, 1987: Retired from the Turkish Armed Forces with the rank of Senior Colonel (Kıdemli Albay)
In 1968, when she was reassigned from İzmir to Gaziemir, she described her new flights as “purposeless flights,” believing this reassignment was part of a policy discouraging female pilots from flying. That same year, she was sent to the Flight Evaluation Board in Ankara, where she was officially withdrawn from flying duties. After a brief break from active flight, she continued her service within the Turkish Armed Forces in administrative and bureaucratic positions at headquarters.
Leman Bozkurt Altınçekiç, who achieved major milestones in Turkish aviation history, became an inspiration not only for female aviators but for all women. Her success transcended national borders and was recognized both in Türkiye and abroad.
In 1984, she received the “Firsts in Public Institutions After the Proclamation of the Republic” Award from the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (TBMM), marking the 50th anniversary of Turkish women gaining the right to vote and be elected, in recognition of her pioneering role as the country’s first female jet pilot.
On February 20, 2020, NATO featured her in a video titled “Türkiye is NATO, We Are NATO,” emphasizing her enduring role as an inspiration for young women and men aspiring to join the military.
Leman Bozkurt Altınçekiç passed away on May 4, 2001, in İzmir, at the age of 68.