(USSR) Sikorsky Igor @·AIRCRAFTUBE

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Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky

25 May 1889 - 26 October 1972

Igor Sikorsky was born in Kiev, Russian Empire (now the capital of Ukraine), as the youngest of five children.

Sikorsky's father, Ivan Alexeevich Sikorsky, was a professor of psychology from mixed Russian and Polish ethnicity. The origin of the Sikorsky family is in the Polish szlachta that was deported after the failure of the January Uprising. Ivan Alexeevich Sikorsky was a son and grandson of Russian Orthodox Church priests. He held monarchist and Russian nationalist views, and those affected his son's political views.

Igor Sikorsky's mother, Mariya Stefanovna Sikorskaya, who was half Ukrainian (on the paternal side) and half Russian (on the maternal side), was a physician who did not work professionally. While homeschooling young Igor, 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 band - powered helicopter.

Sikorsky studied at the Russian Naval War College in St. Petersburg from 1903 through 1909, but did not finish formal studies. For a short time, during late 1906 and early 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 airplane. 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. Paris was then the center of aviation in Europe. He met several French pilots, including Louis Blériot, 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 Le 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--for example, the Ilya Muromets, the world's first four-engined bomber. He was decorated with the Order of St. Vladimir.

Sikorsky's inspiration, for designing an airplane with more than one engine, was from a Mosquito. During a demonstration of his record-setting (in 1911, 70 mph) S-5, the plane had to make a forced landing. It was discovered that the insect had flown into the gasoline and been drawn into the carburetor. The close call convinced Sikorsky of the need for an aircraft that could continue flying if it lost an engine.. Aeroplanes of many nations entered service with two, three, and four engines during the 1914-1918 Great War.

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 emigrated to the United States in 1919.

In the United States, 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 Rachmaninoff, who introduced himself by writing a check for $5,000. Though his prototype was damaged in its first test flight, Sikorsky persuaded his reluctant backers to invest another $2,500; with it, he produced the S-29, one of the first twin-engine planes in America, with a capacity for 14 passengers and a speed of 115 mph. The performance of the S-29, slow though it was compared to military aircraft of even 1918, proved to be a "make or break" moment for Sikorsky's funding.

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 1939 September 14 with the first flight of the Vought-Sikorsky 300, a machine with a single three-blade rotor powered by a 75 horsepower (or 56 kW) engine. Its first free (untethered) flight was on 1940 May 26. 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 Connecticut 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.

Sikorsky was a deeply religious Russian Orthodox Christian and authored two religious and philosophical books (The Message of the Lord's Prayer and The Invisible Encounter). He 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. Sikorsky died in his house in Easton, Connecticut, on 1972 October 26. The Sikorsky Bridge, which carries the Merritt Parkway across the Housatonic River next to Sikorsky's headquarters, is named after him.

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