Text 3. IGOR SIKORSKY

Igor Sikorsky was born in Kyiv, the youngest of five children. In 1903, at the age of 14, he began studying at the Saint Petersburg Imperial Russian Naval Academy. In 1906 he determined that his future lay in engineering, so he resigned from the Academy, despite his satisfactory standing, and left the Russian Empire to study in Paris. He returned to Russia in 1907 enrolling at the Mechanical College of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.

With financial backing from his sister Olga, Igor Sikorsky returned to Paris in 1909 to study aeronautics in the world-renowned Ecole des Techniques Aéronautiques et de Construction Automobile in Paris engineering school and to purchase aircraft parts. At the time, Paris was the centre of the aviation world. I. 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 1909.

Sikorsky's first aircraft of his own design, the “S-1” used a 15 hp Anzani engine, that could not lift the aircraft. His second 25 hp Anzani model “S-2” flew on June 16, 1910 at a height of a few feet. Later, I. Sikorsky built the two-seat “S-5”, his first design not based on other European aircraft. Flying this original aircraft, he earned his pilot license.

In early 1912 Igor Sikorsky became the Chief Engineer of the aircraft division for the Russian Baltic Railroad Car Works. His work at the plant included the construction of the first four-engine aircraft, the “S-21 Russky Vityaz”. He also served as the test pilot for its first flight on May 13, 1913.

After emigrating to the United States in 1919, I. Sikorsky founded the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation in 1923, and developed the first Pan American Airway’s ocean-conquering flying boat in the 1930s.

In the United States I. Sikorsky worked as a school teacher and a lecturer, while looking for an opportunity to work in the aviation industry.

In 1939 he designed and flew the “Vought-Sikorsky VS-300”, the first viable American helicopter, which pioneered the rotor configuration used by most helicopters today. He modifed the design into the “Sikorsky R-4”, which became the world's first mass-produced helicopter in 1942.

I. Sikorsky designed a lot of planes and helicopters. Among the aircrafts designed by I. Sikorsky there are:

· S-6 Three-passenger plane – 1912

· S-21 “Russky Vityaz” Four-engine biplane – 1913

· S-22 “Ilya Muromets” Four-engine biplane – 1913

· S-29 Twin-engine Biplane – 1924

· S-42 “Clipper” – Flying Boat – 1934

· VS-300 Experimental Prototype Helicopter – 1939

· R-4 World's first production helicopter – 1943.

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