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Sikorsky, Igor (1889-1972) aerospace engineer, born in Russia. Sikorsky became interested in aviation after reading about the Wright brothers and studied engineering in Paris. He also began making his own designs for helicopters and airplanes. One of his planes won a design competition in Russia in 1912. Also that year, Sikorsky designed the world's first four-engine plane with an enclosed passenger compartment. He designed the world's first long-range strategic bomber and reconnaissance squadron, which became a mainstay of the Russian air force. Sikorsky emigrated to the United States in 1918 and in 1923 founded Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation; his major success was an amphibious plane used for commercial transport. In the 1930s he designed the first practical single-rotor helicopter, which was used widely for rescue and supply missions by the U.S. Army.
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| Biography: Igor Sikorsky |
The Russian-American aeronautical engineer, aircraft manufacturer, and inventor Igor Sikorsky (1889-1972) designed such famous aircraft as the flying clipper and was the major developer of the helicopter.
Igor Sikorsky was born in Kiev, Russia, where his father was a professor of psychology at St. Vladimir University. Following his graduation from the Naval Academy at St. Petersburg, he studied in Paris and at the Polytechnic Institute in Kiev. While in Germany in 1908, he heard of the dirigible flights of Count Zeppelin and returned to Paris to study aviation. At the age of 20 he built his first helicopter. He then turned to more conventional planes, and in 1910 his S-2 achieved some success. In 1913 he built the world's first four-engine plane, the Grand, which was adopted by the Russian army and used during World War I.
Sikorsky was not sympathetic with the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and in 1918 left for Paris, where he lost money attempting to build his aircraft. In 1919 he came to the United States, hoping to find a broader opportunity to exercise his engineering talents. His initial experience was discouraging, and he was forced to take a teaching position in a school for Russian immigrants. Then, in 1923, he joined with other Russian refugees to form the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Company. The composer and concert pianist Sergei Rachmaninov was a large investor and became vice president of the new firm.
Within a few years the firm became a part of the giant United Aircraft and Transport Company. Sikorsky and his fellow Russians were excellent engineers but poor businessmen. In 1928 they began work on large flying boats for Pan American Airways and lost $1 million on the contracts. In 1929 Sikorsky sold 56 "aerial yachts" to wealthy subscribers, most of whom were deeply involved in the stock market. When the market crashed in October 1929, they defaulted and left Sikorsky in a difficult financial situation.
United took closer charge of Sikorsky's business but continued to support his work on flying boats, which culminated with the building of the S-42 Clipper Ship for Pan American. These were magnificent engineering achievements but still lost money for the firm. Their construction was abandoned in 1938. United, however, fortunately chose to support Sikorsky in a return to his early work on helicopters.
The helicopter had long been realized to be theoretically workable, and a number of people during the 1920s and 1930s, both in the United States and abroad, experimented with its design. In 1939 Sikorsky tested his VS-300, the first truly practical helicopter. His success lay partly in his use of propeller blades the pitch of which could be controlled so as to change the direction of flight. During World War II helicopters were not used until 1944, and their real contributions to both war and peace came only in the 1950s, when Sikorsky was one of the leading manufacturers in the field.
Further Reading
Sikorsky's autobiography is entitled The Story of the Winged S (1939). A full-length account of Sikorsky is Frank J. Delear, Igor Sikorsky: His Three Careers in Aviation (1969). A biographical chapter on him is in Robert M. Bartlett, They Work for Tomorrow (1943). His work is placed in context by John B. Rae in Climb to Greatness: The American Aircraft Industry, 1920-1960 (1968). Charles Lester Morris, Pioneering the Helicopter (1945), is an account by Sikorsky's test pilot.
| Russian History Encyclopedia: Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky |
(1889 - 1972), scientist, engineer, pilot, and entrepreneur.
Igor Sikorsky designed the world's first four-engined airplane in 1913 (precursor to the most successful bomber of World War I) and the world's first true production helicopter. His single-rotor design, a major breakthrough in helicopter technology, remains the dominant configuration in the early twenty-first century. The winged-S emblem still signifies the world's most advanced rotorcraft.
Born in Kiev, Russia, Sikorsky was the youngest of five children. His father, a medical doctor and psychologist, inspired him to explore and learn. He developed a keen interest in mechanics and astronomy. While still a schoolboy he built several model aircraft and helicopters, as well as bombs. After completing formal education in Russia and France, Sikorsky attracted international recognition in 1913 at the age of twenty-four when he designed and flew the first multimotor airplane. In 1918, Sikorsky decided to flee his native country: "What were called the ideals and principles of the Marxist revolution were not acceptable to me." He left Petrograd (St. Petersburg) by rail for Murmansk and from there boarded a steamer for England. Having lost all his savings, he arrived in England with only a few hundred English pounds.
He settled in the United States in 1919, eventually founding the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation, the forerunner of the Sikorsky Division of United Technologies. In the early twenty-first century the corporation manufactures helicopters for sale around the world. Continually designing aircraft, Sikorsky received many other patents, including patents for helicopter control and stability systems. He grasped the humanitarian advantages of helicopters over airplanes. "If a man is in need of rescue," he said, "an airplane can come in and throw flowers on him, and that's just about allbut a direct-lift aircraft could come in and save his life." In the 1930s, Sikorsky designed and manufactured a series of large passenger-carrying flying boats that pioneered the transoceanic commercial air routes in the Caribbean and Pacific.
Bibliography
Cochrane, Dorothy. (1989). The Aviation Careers of Igor Sikorsky. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Hunt, William E. (1998). 'Heelicopter': Pioneering with Igor Sikorsky: Based on a Personal Account. Shrewsbury, UK: Airlife Pub.
Sikorsky, Igor Ivan. (1941). The Story of the Winged-S: With New Material on the Latest Development of the Helicopter; an Autobiography by Igor I. Sikorsky; with Many Illustrations from the Author's Collection of Photographs. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co.
Spenser, Jay P. (1998). Whirlybirds: A History of the U.S. Helicopter Pioneers. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
—JOHANNA GRANVILLE
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky |
Bibliography
See his Story of the Winged-S (rev. ed. 1967) and Invisible Encounter (1947).
| Quotes By: Igor Sikorsky |
Quotes:
"The work of the individual still remains the spark that moves mankind forward."
| Wikipedia: Igor Sikorsky |
| Igor Sikorsky | |
|---|---|
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| Born | May 25, 1889 Kiev, Russian Empire (today Ukraine) |
| Died | 26 October 1972 (aged 83) Easton, Connecticut, USA |
| Nationality | Russian-American |
| Ethnicity | Polish, Russian, Ukrainian |
| Alma mater | Imperial Russian Naval Academy Kiev Polytechnic Institute ETACA |
| Occupation | aircraft designer |
| Known for | first successful helicopter |
| Religious beliefs | Russian Orthodox |
| Spouse(s) | Olga Fyodorovna Simkovitch Elisabeth Semion |
| Children | Tania, Sergei, Nikolai, Igor, George |
| Awards | Order of St. Vladimir National Medal of Science Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy |
Igor Sikorsky (25 May [O.S. 13 May] 1889 – 26 October 1972),[1] born Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky (Russian: Игорь Иванович Сикорский, Ukrainian: Ігор Іванович Сікорський), was a Russian-American pioneer of aviation in both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. He designed and flew the world's first multi-engine fixed-wing aircraft, the Russky Vityaz in 1913. After immigrating to the United States, Sikorsky founded the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation in 1923,[2] and developed the first of Pan American Airways' ocean-conquering flying boats in the 1930s. In 1939, he designed and flew the Vought-Sikorsky VS-300,[3] the first viable American helicopter, which pioneered the rotor configuration used by most helicopters today.[4] Sikorsky would modify the design into the Sikorsky R-4, which became the world's first mass-produced helicopter in 1942.
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Igor Sikorsky was born in Kiev, Russian Empire (today, Ukraine), as the youngest of five children born to Ivan Alexeevich Sikorsky and his wife. Sikorsky's father, Ivan, was of Russian-Polish descent; the Sikorsky family came from Polish nobility (Polish: szlachta). A professor of psychology, Ivan was the son and grandson of Russian Orthodox priests and held monarchist and Russian nationalist views.[5][6][7][8][9]
Igor Sikorsky's mother, Mariya Stefanovna Sikorskaya (née Temryuk-Cherkasova), whose father was Ukrainian and whose mother was Russian,[10][11] 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. In 1900, at age 11, he accompanied his father to Germany and became interested in natural sciences through conversations with his father. After returning home, Sikorsky began to experiment with model flying machines, and, by age 12, he had made a small rubber band-powered helicopter.[12]
Sikorsky began studying at the Saint Petersburg Imperial Russian Naval Academy, in 1903, at the age of 14. In 1906, he determined that his future lay in engineering, so he resigned the Academy, despite his satisfactory standing, and left Russia to study in Paris. He returned to Russia in 1907, enrolling at the Mechanical College of the Kiev Polytechnic Institute. After the academic year, Sikorsky again accompanied his father to Germany in the summer of 1908, where he learned of the accomplishments of the Wright Brothers' airplane and Count von Zeppelin's dirigible.[13] Sikorsky later said about this event: "Within twenty-four hours, I decided to change my life's work. I would study aviation."[14]
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With financial backing from his sister Olga, Sikorsky returned to Paris in 1909 to study aeronautics in the world-renowned Ecole des Techniques Aéronautiques et de Construction Automobile (ETACA) engineer school and to purchase aircraft parts. At the time, Paris was the center of the aviation world. Sikorsky would meet with aviation pioneers, to ask them questions about aircraft and flying. In May 1909, he returned to Russia and began designing his first helicopter, which he began testing in July. Despite his progress in solving technical problems of control, Sikorsky realized that the aircraft would never fly. He finally disassembled the aircraft in October 1909, after he determined that he could learn nothing more from the design.[15]
| “ | I had learned enough to recognize that with the existing state of the art, engines, materials, and—most of all—the shortage of money and lack of experience...I would not be able to produce a successful helicopter at that time.[16] | ” |
Sikorsky built the two-seat S-5, his first design that was not based on other European aircraft. Flying this original aircraft, Sikorsky earned his pilot license; Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) license No. 64 issued by the Imperial Aero Club of Russia in 1911.[17] During a demonstration of the S-5, the engine quit and Sikorsky was forced to make a crash landing to avoid a wall. It was discovered that a mosquito had flown into the gasoline and had been drawn into the carburetor, starving the engine of fuel. The close call convinced Sikorsky of the need for an aircraft that could continue flying if it lost an engine.[18] His next aircraft, the S-6 held three passengers and was selected as the winner of the Moscow aircraft exhibition held by the Russian Army in February 1912.[17]
In early 1912, Igor Sikorsky became Chief Engineer of the aircraft division for the Russian Baltic Railroad Car Works (Russko-Baltiisky Vagonny Zavod or R-BVZ)[19] in Saint Petersburg.[20] His work at R-BVZ included the construction the first four-engine aircraft, the S-21 Russky Vityaz, which he called Le Grand. He also served as the test pilot for the first flight on 13 May 1913. In recognition for his accomplishment, he was awarded an honorary degree in engineering from Saint Petersburg Polytechnical Institute in 1914. Sikorsky took the experience from building the Russky Vityaz to develop the world's first four-engined bomber, the S-22 Ilya Muromets, for which he was decorated with the Order of St. Vladimir.
After World War I, Igor 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, arriving in New York on 30 March 1919.[21]
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, he formed the Sikorsky Manufacturing Company in Roosevelt, New York.[22] He was helped by several former Russian military officers. Among Sikorsky's chief supporters was composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, who introduced himself by writing a check for US$5,000 (approximately $61,000 in 2007 dollars). Though his prototype was damaged in its first test flight, Sikorsky persuaded his reluctant backers to invest another $2,500. With the additional funds, 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.[23] The performance of the S-29, slow compared to military aircraft of 1918, proved to be a "make or break" moment for Sikorsky's funding.
In 1928, Sikorsky became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Sikorsky Manufacturing Company moved to Stratford, Connecticut in 1929. It became a part of United Aircraft and Transport (now United Technologies Corporation) in July of that year.[24] The company manufactured flying boats, such as the S-42 "Clipper", used by Pan Am for trans-Atlantic flights.[16]
Meanwhile, Sikorsky also continued his earlier work on vertical flight. On 14 February 1929, he filed an application to patent a "direct lift" amphibian aircraft which used compressed air to power a direct lift "propeller" and two smaller propellers for thrust.[25] On 27 June 1931, Sikorsky filed for a patent for another "direct lift aircraft", and was awarded patent #1,994,488 on 19 March 1935.[26] His design plans eventually culminated in the first (tethered) flight of the Vought-Sikorsky VS-300 on 14 September 1939, with the first free flight occurring eight months later on 26 May 1940. Sikorsky's success with the VS-300 led to the R-4, which became the world's first mass produced helicopter in 1942. Sikorsky's final VS-300 rotor configuration, comprising a single main rotor and a single antitorque tail rotor, has proven to be one of the most popular helicopter configurations, being used in most helicopters produced today.[27]
Sikorsky was married to Olga Fyodorovna Simkovitch in Russia. They were divorced and Olga remained in Russia with their daughter as Sikorsky departed ahead of the October Revolution. In 1923, Sikorsky's sisters emigrated to the United States, bringing six-year old Tania with them.[28] Sikorsky married Elisabeth Semion in 1924, in New York.[29] Sikorsky and Elisabeth had four sons; Sergei, Nikolai, Igor Jr., and George.
Sikorsky died at his home in Easton, Connecticut, on October 26, 1972. The Sikorsky Memorial Bridge, which carries the Merritt Parkway across the Housatonic River next to the Sikorsky corporate headquarters, is named for him. 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 Memorial Airport.
Mr. Sikorsky was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame and the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1987.[33][34][35]
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). Summarizing his beliefs, in the latter he wrote:
| “ | Our concerns sink into insignificance when compared with the eternal value of human personality - a potential child of God which is destined to triumph over lie, pain, and death. No one can take this sublime meaning of life away from us, and this is the one thing that matters.[36] | ” |
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The helicopter approaches closer than any other [vehicle] to fulfillment of mankind's ancient dreams of the flying horse and the 
- Igor Sikorsky
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