Katarina

Gaj Urni

With an adventurous spirit, Katarina was not satisfied with the usual work in the office. She decided to pass the pilot test at any cost, and soon...

Katarina Matanović-Kulenović was born in the Slavonic village of Vuci near Osijek. She spent her childhood there and finished elementary school. The family was well-off, until Katarina was sixteen. Namely, then her father dies suddenly, because of which the family fell into great financial difficulties.

However, Katarina was very capable. Wanting to help her mother, she moved to her sister in Zagreb. With the support of her sister, she attended the gymnasium on Katarinski trg in Gornji Grad. In addition to being an excellent student, Katarina also showed exceptional sportsmanship and a love of speed. Namely, every day in the winter she went to Sljeme to ski.

After completing six grades of high school, she enrolled in a correspondence course for an office clerk so that she could get a job and become independent as soon as possible. She soon found employment in the construction company "Švab". Although her adventurous nature did not tolerate office work, she was a conscientious worker, and therefore highly respected.

In the 1930s, the first airport "Aerodrom Borongaj" was opened with the first line Zagreb - Belgrade. Katarina, on the other hand, was fascinated by flying. She was overjoyed when she saw an ad in the newspaper that a flight course was opening at the airport. But in those years, flying was a very expensive sport.

Saving for flying lessons encouraged her to work harder. She managed to save enough and in 1935 she applied for a course. However, there were not enough applicants that year, so the pilot school did not start operating. That's why Katarina lobbied in favor of Aeroklub at her job in Švab. Thanks to the payments that Katarina persuaded them to make, many employees of that company became lifelong members of the first Zagreb aero club.

So on August 5, 1935, Katarina found herself on a plane for the first time. She took off from Borongaj in a biplane piloted by retired Captain Ivan Mrak. She proudly entered that date in her flight book number 193.

The same pilot gave her her first flying lesson in June 1936. After just two months, Katarina, thanks to daily attendance of lessons, was able to fly the plane independently, and already on October 10 of the same year, she passed her pilot's test. Her great success in flying is all the greater because she piloted in very bad weather. That's how Katarina received her flying diploma and became the first Croatian female pilot.

She started flying every day, but soon she was ready for new challenges. And the next step was to jump with a parachute.

At the international aviation exhibition in 1938 in Belgrade, Katarina jumped from a hundred-meter-high tower with a pre-opened parachute.

But that was not enough for her, so she persistently persuaded the organizers to allow her to jump from the plane. At first, her demands were met with derision. But persistence paid off in the end. On June 5, 1938, Katarina performed her first jump from a height of 1,500 meters in Zemun. Although she dislocated her leg during the jump, she went down in history as the first female paratrooper in this region.

Thanks to the media attention she won with her jump, Katarina managed to establish a women's section in the aero club. On January 29, 1939, she organized a large women's air show.

As part of the air show, a prize game was organized exclusively for women. The main prize was a panoramic flight over Zagreb. Although it was expected that only about a hundred contestants would participate, in the end, the organizers received 837 applications. The prize game thus showed that the female population is very interested in flying, which disproved the stereotype that it is an exclusively male sport.

Over the years, Katarina has continued to capture the attention of the public at flying competitions and rallies. And then came World War II. She then applied to become a military pilot, but was rejected due to a lack of confidence.

However, the need for Katarina to fly soon arose. On November 15, 1941, she was accepted as a military pilot in the service of the First Airport in Zagreb with the rank of lieutenant. She flew a light two-seater plane on the tasks of transporting documents, medicines, military commanders and the wounded. They say that she very often transported the then commander of the armed forces, Anta Vokić, who was the only one who trusted her.

In 1942, Katarina married Namik Kulenović, a well-known journalist. It is interesting that Namik, unlike Katarina, hated flying. He always took care of her when she went on missions. But it soon turned out that Namiko's fear was justified.

Their happy marriage was interrupted by a tragic accident. During the official flight to Bihać, the plane in which Namik was traveling was hit and crashed. Only one month after the tragic loss of her husband, Katarina reported for duty. But the misfortune did not end there. Borongaj was bombed on the same day. When the bomb exploded, she was wounded in the forehead.

During the hospital examination for a minor physical injury, a new shock followed for Katarina. It was discovered that she was pregnant. As she was no longer able to perform military duties, she was sent to recuperate. On the last day of May, Katarina flew for the last time.

After the end of the war, Katarina and her newborn son were kicked out of the apartment. Due to the change in the state structure, she spent about forty days in prison, without a clear indictment. Thanks to her fighting spirit, and despite the new circumstances, she managed to find an office job in "General turist".

Katarina managed to raise and raise her son by herself, who showed a love for painting from an early age. After finishing high school, he was admitted to the painting academy in Cologne. During her years of study, Katarina often visited him, and over time she found a job as a housekeeper for a German professor.

In 1998, she was awarded the Order of Danica Hrvatska with the image of Franjo Bučar. After 56 years of membership ban, in 2001 she was re-admitted to Aeroklub Zagreb. The talented pilot and athlete passed away in 2003 in Zagreb.

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The first Croatian female pilot and parachutist