Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky (25 May 1889 – 26 October 1972) was a Russian-American aviation pioneer in both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. His first success came with the Sikorsky S-2, the second aircraft of his design and construction. His fifth airplane, the S-5, won him national recognition in Russia and secured F.A.I. pilot's license number 64. His S-6-A received the highest award at the 1912 Moscow Aviation Exhibition, and in the fall of that year the aircraft won first prize for its young designer, builder and pilot in the military competition at Saint Petersburg. In 1913, the Sikorsky-designed Russky Vityaz (S-21) became the first successful four-engine aircraft to take flight. He also designed and built the Ilya Muromets (S-22 – S-27) family of four-engine aircraft, an airliner which he redesigned to be the world's first four-engine bomber when World War I broke out.
After emigrating to the United States in 1919 because of the Russian Revolution, Sikorsky founded the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation in 1923"About Sikorsky." Sikorsky Aircraft. Retrieved: December 11, 2008. and developed the first of Pan American Airways' ocean-crossing flying boats in the 1930s, including the Sikorsky S-42 "Flying Clipper".
In 1939, Sikorsky designed and flew the Vought-Sikorsky VS-300,Spenser 1998, p. 25. the first viable American helicopter, which pioneered the single main rotor and a single antitorque tail rotor configuration used by most helicopters today.Woods 1979, p. 262. Sikorsky modified the design into the Sikorsky R-4, which became the world's first mass-produced helicopter in 1942.
Early life Igor Sikorsky was born in Kiev, Russian Empire (now Kyiv, Ukraine), on May 25, 1889.Fortier, Rénald. "Igor Sikorsky: One Man, Three Careers." aviation.technomuses.ca, 1996. Retrieved: October 29, 2008."Igor Sikorsky | Historical Archives | History" . sikorskyarchives.com He was the youngest of five children. His father, Ivan Alexeevich Sikorsky, was a professor of psychology in Saint Vladimir University (now Taras Shevchenko National University), a psychiatrist with an international reputation, and an ardent Russian nationalist.Homo Imperii A History of Physical Anthropology in Russia, Marina Mogilner 2013, p. 72.Homo Imperii A History of Physical Anthropology in Russia, Marina Mogilner 2013, p. 167.Homo Imperii A History of Physical Anthropology in Russia, Marina Mogilner 2013, p. 177.Hillis, Faith. Children of Rus': Right-Bank Ukraine and the Invention of a Russian Nation 2013, , p. 259.
Igor Sikorsky was an Orthodox Christian. When questioned regarding his roots, he would answer: "My family is of Russian origin. My grandfather and other ancestors from the time of Peter the Great were Russian Orthodox priests."
Sikorsky's mother, Mariya Stefanovna Sikorskaya (née Temryuk-Cherkasova),Mikheev, V. R. "Sikorsky: Hero, Exile, the Father of Aviation" (English translation). Pravmir.ru, October 31, 2011. Retrieved: May 16, 2012. was a physician who did not work professionally. She is sometimes called Zinaida Sikorsky. 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 through conversations with his father became interested in natural sciences. After returning home, Sikorsky began to experiment with model flying machines, and by age 12, he had made a small rubber band-powered helicopter.Woods 1979, p. 254.
Sikorsky began studying at the Saint Petersburg Maritime Cadet Corps in 1903 at the age of 14. 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 the Russian Empire 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' Flyer and Ferdinand von Zeppelin's rigid airships."The Case Files: Igor Sikorsky" . Franklin Institute. Retrieved: August 24, 2017. Sikorsky later said about this event: "Within twenty-four hours, I decided to change my life's work. I would study aviation."
By the start of World War I in 1914, Sikorsky's airplane research and production business in Kiev was flourishing, and his factory made bombers during the war. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, Igor Sikorsky fled his homeland in early 1918, because the Bolsheviks threatened to shoot him for being "the Tsar's friend and a very popular person". "Sergei Sikorsky: My father's fate (English translation version of an interview published in Russian by pravmir.ru)" He moved to France where he was offered a contract for the design of a new, more powerful Muromets-type plane. But in November 1918 the war ended, and the French government stopped subsidizing military orders, whereupon he decided to move to the United States. On March 24, 1919, he left France on the ocean liner Lorraine, arriving in New York City on March 30, 1919.Kutuzov, Mikhail. "The Genius of Flight" (English translation). Russian Archipelago, 2012. Retrieved: May 16, 2012.
Aircraft designer
With financial backing from his sister Olga, Sikorsky returned to Paris, the center of the aviation world at the time, in 1909. Sikorsky met 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. Powered by a Anzani engine, the helicopter used an upper and lower two-bladed lifting propeller that rotated in opposite directions at 160 rpm. The machine could only generate about of lift, not enough to lift the approximate weight. 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.Woods 1979, p. 255. In February 1910, he undertook to build a second helicopter, and his first airplane. By the spring, helicopter No. 2 could lift its weight of , but not the additional weight of an operator.
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. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2009 via britannica.com. Retrieved: October 14, 2009.
Sikorsky's first aircraft of his own design, the S-1, used a Anzani 3-cylinder fan engine in a pusher configuration, that could not lift the aircraft. His second design, called the S-2, was powered by a Anzani engine in a tractor configuration and first flew on June 3, 1910, at a height of a few feet. On June 30, after some modifications, Sikorsky reached an altitude of "sixty or eighty feet" before the S-2 stalled and was completely destroyed when it crashed in a ravine."Sikorsky Celebrates." Popular Aviation September 1930, p. 20. Later, Sikorsky built the two-seat S-5, his first design 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.Woods 1979, p. 256. 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 in the gasoline 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.Current Biography 1940, pp. 734–736. 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.
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)Murphy 2005, p. 180. in Saint Petersburg.Lake 2002, p. 31. His work at R-BVZ included the construction of the first four-cylinder aircraft, the S-21 Russky Vityaz, which he initially called Le Grand when fitted with just two engines, then the Bolshoi Baltisky (The Great Baltic) when fitted with four engines in two "push-pull" pairs, and finally Russki Vityaz in its four engine all tractor-engined configuration. He also served as the test pilot for its first flight on May 13, 1913. In recognition of 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 S-22 Ilya Muromets airliner. Due to the outbreak of World War I, he redesigned it as the world's first four-engined bomber, 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."Airmen leave Russia." The New York Times, June 25, 1918. Retrieved May 23, 2011. Seeing little opportunity for himself as an aircraft designer in war-torn Europe, and particularly Russia, ravaged by the Bolshevik Revolution and Russian Civil War, he emigrated to the United States, arriving in New York on March 30, 1919.Woods 1979, p. 257."Russian airplane will be made here." The New York Times, April 20, 1919. Retrieved: July 17, 2010.
List of aircraft designed by Sikorsky
H-1 Sikorsky's first helicopter design, 1909 H-2 Sikorsky's second helicopter design, 1910 S-1 single-engine pusher biplane, Sikorsky's first fixed wing design, 1910 S-2 single-engine tractor biplane developed from the S-1, 1910 S-3 enlarged and improved version of the S-2, 1910 S-4 one-seat, single-engine biplane concept developed from the S-3, never flown, 1911 S-5 one-seat, single-engine biplane, Sikorsky's first practical aircraft, 1911 S-6 three-seat, single-engine biplane, 1912 S-7 two-seat, single-engine monoplane, 1912 S-8 two-seat single-engine biplane trainer, 1912 S-9 Krugly three-seat, single-engine monoplane, 1913 S-10 five-seat, single-engine biplane reconnaissance/trainer developed from the S-6, 1913 S-11 Polukrugly two-seat, single-engine mid-wing reconnaissance monoplane prototype, 1913 S-12 one-seat, single-engine trainer, Sikorsky's most successful aircraft in Russia, 1913 S-13 and S-14 proposed designs, never completed due to unavailability of engines S-15 single-engine light bomber floatplane, 1913 S-16 two-seat, single-engine escort fighter, 1914–1915 S-17 two-seat, single-engine reconnaissance biplane based on the S-10, 1915 S-18 two-seat, twin-engine pusher biplane fighter/interceptor S-19 twin-engine biplane, 1916 S-20 two-seat biplane fighter, 1916 S-21 Russky Vityaz four-engine biplane airliner, first successful four engine aircraft, 1913 S-22–S-27 Ilya Muromets four-engine biplane airliner and heavy bomber, 1913 Avion Atlas proposed four-engined biplane bomber for France, cancelled due to the end of World.War I, 1918 IS-27 Battleplane proposed four-engined biplane heavy bomber, developed from the Avion Atlas, for the USAAS, 1919 S-28 projected four-engine biplane airliner; Sikorsky's first American design, 1919 S-29-A twin-engine biplane airliner, 1924 S-30 proposed twin engine biplane, 1925 S-31 single engine sesquiplane, 1925 S-32 single engine floatplane, 1926 S-33 Messenger two-seat, single engine racer plane, 1925 S-34 twin-engine amphibian, 1926 S-35 trimotor built for René Fonck's attempt to win the Orteig Prize, 1926 S-36 twin engine amphibian, 1927 S-37 twin-engine built for René Fonck, but then converted to a passenger plane, 1927 S-38 twin-engine ten-seat flying boat, 1928 S-39 smaller single-engine version of the S-38, 1929