Tamara Fyodorovna Konstantinova was a pilot in the Soviet Air Force during the Second World War.
Background
Tamara Fyodorovna Konstantinova was born on 7 November 1919 to a Russian peasant family in Tver province of the RSFSR (now village Nigerevo, Tver' Oblast, Russian Federation). Her father was a blacksmith and her mother was a schoolteacher.
Education
After graduating from secondary school she enrolled in flight school and in 1940 graduated from flight instructor courses at the Kalinin aeroclub.
Career
After completing nursing courses Tamara Fyodorovna joined the Red Army in March 1943 and was assigned to an aviation unit as a medic. Due to previous experience at the Kalinin aeroclub, she sent letters to her superiors requesting to be reassigned as a pilot. In March 1944 she was assigned to the 386th light Bomber Regiment as the pilot of a Po-2 bomber. Later she was transferred to the 566th Attack Aviation Regiment (999th Ground Attack Regiment, 277th Assault Aviation Division, 1st Air Army, 3rd Belorussian Front) as a squadron navigator in an Ilyushin Il-2 plane.
After the war Tamara Fyodorovna joined the reserve but retired from the military shortly afterward. She worked in the social welfare department of the Executive Committee of Voronezh Oblast and became a member of the Communist Party in 1949. She died on 28 July 1999 at the age of 79 and was buried in the Kominternovskoye cemetery.