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Sikorsky Aero Engineering Company Stock Certificate courtesy of Scripophily.com
Igor Ivanovich (or Ihor Ivanovych) Sikorsky (Russian: Игорь Иванович Сикорский; Ukrainian: Ігор Іванович Сікорський) (25 May 1889 – 26 October 1972) was a pioneer of aviation who designed the first four-engine fixed-wing aircraft and the first successful helicopter of the most common configuration (single main rotor tail rotor).
[edit] Biography
Igor Sikorsky was born in Kiev, in the Russian Empire (currently the capital of Ukraine), as the youngest of five children. Sikorsky's father was a professor of psychology. His mother was a physician but did not work professionally. While homeschooling young Igor (until the age of nine), she gave him a great love for art, especially in the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci, and the stories of Jules Verne. He started to experiment with model flying machines, and, by age 12, he had made a small rubber-powered helicopter.
Sikorsky studied at the Naval War College in St. Petersburg from 1903 to 1906, and from 1907 to 1909, but did not finish formal studies. For a short time, in the years 1906-1907, he studied engineering in Paris. In 1908, Sikorsky and his father traveled to Germany; there, he saw a newspaper picture of Orville Wright and his plane. Sikorsky later said about this event: "Within twenty-four hours, I decided to change my life's work. I would study aviation."
With financial backing from his sister, Sikorsky returned to Paris, in 1909, to study aerodynamics at ESTACA engineer school (known at this time as ETACA). Paris was then the center of aviation in Europe. He met several French pilots, including Louis Bleriot, the first person to fly across the English Channel. Sikorsky returned to Kiev the same year and started to experiment with flying machines.
In 1912, Igor Sikorsky became Chief Engineer in the Russian Baltic Railroad Car Factory in Saint Petersburg. In 1914, he was awarded the Degree in Engineering "Honoris Causa" by Saint Petersburg Polytechnical Institute. His S-6-B aircraft won a small order from the Russian Army. Other early work included the construction, as chief engineer, of the first four-engine aircraft, the Bolshoi Baltiski, which he called the Grand. He was also the test pilot for its first flight, on 13 May 1913. Sikorsky's planes were used by Russia as bombers in World War I (see Ilya Muromets) and he was decorated with the Order of St. Vladimir.
After World War I, Sikorsky briefly became an engineer for the French forces in Russia during the Russian Civil War. Seeing little opportunity for himself as an aircraft designer in war-torn Europe (and particularly Russia, ravaged by the October Revolution and Civil War), he immigrated to the United States in 1919.
In the U.S., Sikorsky first worked as a school teacher and a lecturer, while looking for an opportunity in the aviation industry. In 1923, helped by several former Russian army officers, he formed the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Company. Among Sikorsky's chief supporters was composer Sergei Rachmaninov, who introduced himself by writing a check for $5,000.
In 1928, Sikorsky became a naturalized citizen of the United States. The next year, Sikorsky Aero Engineering Company was purchased by, and became a subsidiary of, United Aircraft, itself now a part of United Technologies Corporation. The company manufactured flying boats, such as the S-42, used by Pan Am for trans-Atlantic flights and known as Pan Am Clippers.
Sikorsky had experimented with helicopter-type flying machines while in Russia. He brought his work to fruition on 14 September 1939 with the first flight of the Vought-Sikorsky 300, a machine with a single three-blade rotor powered by a 75 horsepower (56 kW) engine. Its first free (untethered) flight was on 13 May 1940. The VS-300 was not the first successful rotary-wing aircraft to fly, but it was the first of the single-rotor configuration that became the world standard.
Sikorsky has been designated a Connecticut Aviation Pioneer by the state legislature. The Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation in Stratford, Connecticut, continues to the present day as one of the world's leading helicopter manufacturers, and a nearby small airport has been named Sikorsky Airport.
Igor Sikorsky had a daughter born in Russia and four sons born in the United States. His eldest son, Sergei, remained active with the company following Igor's death in 1972.
[edit] See also
- Aerosan—Sikorsky built some of these propeller-powered sleighs in 1909–10.
- Sikorsky Prize - A prize for human powered helicopters named in his honor.
[edit] Further reading
- Sikorsky's autobiography, The Story of the Winged S. (originally published 1938; updated editions, various years up to 1948)
- Frank J. Delear, Igor Sikorsky: His Three Careers in Aviation (New York, 1969) - described as "the only biography"[1]
[edit] External links
