Pelagia Majewska’s memorabilia will be added to the Polish Aviation Museum’s collection.

The ceremony will take place on June 15, 2026, at 11:00 AM in the Main Building of the Polish Aviation Museum. Representatives of the aviation community and students from Krakow’s aviation classes will participate. The event will be accompanied by the opening of a commemorative board exhibition.

Among the 16 donated items documenting the extraordinary career of the “Queen of the Skies” are the most valuable sports trophies: the Czesław Tański Medal and the Lilienthal Medal.

Who was Pelagia Majewska?

Pelagia Majewska was born on April 29, 1933, in Rivne. She began her aviation adventure at the Lublin Aeroclub and then continued at the Warsaw Aeroclub. In 1956, she became the first glider pilot in Poland to be awarded the Czesław Tański Medal – the highest Polish gliding distinction. Four years later, in 1960, she became the first woman in Poland and the second in the world to receive the Lilienthal Medal – the highest global gliding distinction awarded by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).

She was the second Polish woman and the third woman in the world to earn the Gold Gliding Badge with Three Diamonds. During her career, she set 21 national and 17 world records, stood on the podium three times at the Women’s International Gliding Competitions (1973, 1975, 1977), and was awarded the Medal for Outstanding Sporting Achievements three times. Her remarkable sporting and social journey was complemented by her being honored with the title of Meritorious Master of Sports, the Gold and Silver Cross of Merit, and posthumously with the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.

Pelagia Majewska died in a plane crash in Lisbon on July 12, 1988. A year after her death, the FAI, at the request of the Polish Aeroclub, established a medal in her name – the highest international gliding distinction for women.