Detail from a photograph of Igor Sikorsky, inventor of the practical helicopter – Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Igor Sikorsky (1889-1972)
As a young man, Igor Sikorsky designed aircraft (of his own invention) in his native Russia before immigrating to the United States in 1919 to escape the Bolshevik Revolution. Four years later he founded the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation in Long Island and focused on producing seaplanes, but a fascination with vertical flight soon turned his attention to designing helicopters. On January 14, 1942, after designing a craft with a single main rotor (complimented by a smaller vertical rotor on the tail), Sikorsky piloted the first successful test flight of a helicopter in the United States. Today, his Sikorsky Aviation Corporation (based in Stratford) is one of the leading helicopter manufacturers in the world.
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Igor Sikorsky and his Flying Machines
This Russian émigré not only invented a machine capable of controlled vertical flight, he also re-invented his aviation career along the way. …[more]
