Another fun fact about airports.

Many still remember the former international airport in Istanbul named after Atatürk (closed in 2019), replaced by simply "Istanbul International Airport" (because the father of the nation must be one 🫠).

But there is also a second airport with a hard-to-pronounce name "Sabiha Gökçen International Airport" (if you've flown with Pegasus, you've definitely been there).

So, Sabiha Gökçen is not just a mythical character or a random set of letters; she was a military pilot who, at 23, became Turkey's first female pilot and the first Turkish female fighter pilot. Moreover, she is one of Atatürk's eight adopted daughters (whose "own airport" is no more).

Thus, the daughter of the "father of the nation" outlived her father, if not in historical memory, then certainly in the memory of travelers.

By the way, the surname Gökçen comes from the Turkish word Gök, meaning "sky".