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Old May 12th 09, 08:53 AM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.aviation
Neil Hoskins
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Default Hangar Princess - 3438464314_f17e5201c3_o.jpg (1/1) [147K]

Any idea what happened to her? Was she murdered by the Bolsheviks like the
rest of the royal family?

"Netko" wrote in message
x.com...
Specifically it's Russian Princess Evgenia Mikhailovna Shakhovskaya with
her
instructor Vsevolod Mikhailovich Abramovich. Abramovitch was killed in a
crash when he was instructing Shakhovskaya in 1913 (probably shortly after
this picture was taken).

Princess Evgenia actually qualified in August 1911, making her Russia's
second female pilot. In November 1914 she became the first woman in the
world to fly as a military pilot (flying reconnaissance missions in the
Imperial Russian Air Service - one of several women to serve in that
role).

Abramovich worked for a German subsidiary of the Wright Brothers and then
designed the Abramovich Flyer shown in the picture.

To spice things up for those expecting a more racy picture, Shakhovskaya
was
reportedly a bit of a nymphomaniac.

The photograph is from the Library of Congress (hence it's snappy name).