Turkish Aeronautical Association and Türkkuşu

16 February 1925: The Turkish Aeroplane Society

The Turkish Aeroplane Society was founded on 16 February 1925; its first president was Cevat Abbas Bey. Its purpose was to explain aviation to society, train personnel and generate resources for air power. The Aircraft Mechanics School opened on 23 April 1926; membership of the international air sports organisation FAI followed in 1929. At its congress on 24 May 1935, the society adopted the name Türk Hava Kurumu, or Turkish Aeronautical Association. Hezarfen, the Ottoman aviation school and aviation during the War of Independence therefore cannot be presented as THK’s own activities; they are an older historical inheritance that the institution received.

Cities, professional groups, students and citizens from different communities stood behind the fundraising campaigns. Telling aviation history through only a few prominent names leaves their contributions out. Training mechanics, maintaining aircraft and reaching young people interested in flying were as necessary as collecting money. Distinguishing an institution’s founding purpose from what it could accomplish in each period helps reveal both the work achieved and the goals left unmet.

[1] Turkish Aeronautical Association · [2] Atatürk Research Centre / Atatürk Encyclopaedia

Türkkuşu and the winds of İnönü

Türkkuşu, established on 3 May 1935, was a concrete step towards making aviation a skill that could be learned and widely shared. According to THK’s history of İnönü, the first training in Ankara used four gliders acquired from the Soviet Union and two instructors. When the limitations of prolonged soaring over flat ground became clear, Vecihi Hürkuş and Anokhin searched for a suitable location. İnönü’s windy hills met the need; the Advanced Gliding Camp opened on 10 July 1936. This choice shows that the history of training is also a history of geography and meteorology.

From 1939, the İnönü camp also undertook military personnel training under the name Gedikli Hazırlama Yuvası, a preparatory centre for non-commissioned personnel. The institutional history states that specialists including bombardiers, radio operators, communications personnel, photographers and armourers were trained there. An environment that began with gliding thus developed beyond a school training only the person seated in the cockpit. Remembering the broad network of professions behind a flight visible in the sky is one of the most useful ways to explain this heritage to young people today.

[3] Turkish Aeronautical Association

Workshops, factories and sustainable production

Woodworking and repair infrastructure at Akköprü gradually developed into glider manufacture. This production connected the aircraft required for training with technical skills. The establishment of Etimesgut Aircraft Factory dates to the 1939–1941 period; later years saw the development of THK-coded gliders and aircraft projects for training and transport. Design, prototype, licensed assembly and series production should not be used interchangeably here. Each describes a different gain in personnel and industrial infrastructure.

The TOMTAŞ venture, opened in Kayseri on 6 October 1926, is also part of this broader picture. The end of the Junkers partnership amid financial and operating difficulties did not mean that all the facility’s technical expertise vanished at once; maintenance and licensed manufacturing continued under other arrangements. Archival studies of THK revenues show that some sources of income narrowed after 1939. Explaining continuity in production requires orders, financing, technology, training and state procurement choices to be considered together; treating a single turning point as the sole cause of every outcome oversimplifies this complex history.

[4] Atatürk Research Centre / Atatürk Encyclopaedia · [5] Atatürk Research Centre / Atatürk Encyclopaedia · [6] Journal of Modern Turkish History Studies

Sabiha Gökçen: From student to chief instructor

The late Sabiha Gökçen joined Türkkuşu in 1935; after initial training in Ankara, she studied advanced gliding in Crimea. The Atatürk Encyclopaedia dates her first powered-aircraft flight to 25 February 1936. She received special military flight training in Eskişehir and earned her military flying badge on 30 August 1937. Her place as Türkiye’s first woman military pilot is a powerful symbol of women’s participation in education and the professions. This title does not displace Bedriye Tahir Gökmen, who had previously flown as a civilian pilot.

Gökçen’s military career also included participation in the 1937 Dersim operation; this fact should not be removed from her biography. The consequences of military operations for civilians form a separate field of historical investigation that cannot be explained solely in the language of achievements and medals. Her 1938 Balkan flight increased her international recognition. Her appointment that year as Türkkuşu’s chief instructor, a position she held until 1955, reveals the educational side of her legacy beyond demonstration flights. Understanding a pioneer means considering her flights, the institutions she belonged to and the people she trained together.

[7] Atatürk Research Centre / Atatürk Encyclopaedia · [8] Turkish Aeronautical Association

The separate institutional path of air transport

THK should not be confused with the institutions of scheduled air transport. Turkish Airlines’ official history states that Fesa Evrensev was the first director general of the five-aircraft organisation launched on 20 May 1933 as the State Airlines Administration. Fundraising, training and air sports developed on one side, and passenger, mail and cargo operations on the other. Although these paths exchanged people and experience, they were not a single trajectory within the same organisation. Placing historical names and abbreviations accurately helps readers understand the relationships between institutions.

[9] Turkish Airlines

THK: Training and Current Fleet Status

Unlike design companies, THK should be assessed through training, air sports and the continuity of aviation culture. The current Türkkuşu course portal lists gliding, model aircraft, UAVs and other disciplines. The institution’s ‘Activities 2026’ statement reports that the Flight Academy flew more than 23,000 hours with 24 aircraft in 2025. The same source describes five of eight firefighting aircraft as inactive and three as requiring modernisation; it states that the institution withdrew from the helicopter firefighting partnership. An undated archive story saying ‘THK’s Firebirds Are Ready for Operations’ therefore does not prove that the 2026 fleet is ready. Showing educational activity alongside the firefighting fleet’s technical and financial problems accurately describes the present situation without diminishing THK’s historical importance.

[10] Turkish Aeronautical Association · [11] Turkish Aeronautical Association · [12] Turkish Aeronautical Association