Igor Sikorsky
Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky (25 May 1889 – 26 October 1972) was a Russian-American aviation pioneer in both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Sikorsky designed Vought-Sikorsky VS-300 which first version of modern Helicopter in 1939 and had his first flight at May 1940.
Life
Igor Sikorsky was born in Kiev, Russian Empire (now Kyiv, Ukraine), on May 25, 1889 to Russian Orthodox family from ancestors who served as priest to Tsar Peter the Great. Sikorsky was supporter of White Russian Army against Bolsheviks. After Russian civil war, Sikorsky immigrated to United States.
In the U.S., Sikorsky first worked as a school teacher and a lecturer, while looking for an opportunity to work in the aviation industry. In 1932, he joined the faculty of the University of Rhode Island to form an aeronautical engineering program and remained with the university until 1948. He also lectured at the University of Bridgeport.
In 1928, Sikorsky became a naturalized citizen of the United States. The Sikorsky Manufacturing Company moved to Stratford, Connecticut in 1929. It became a part of the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation (now United Technologies Corporation) in July of that year. The company manufactured flying boats, such as the S-42 "Clipper", used by Pan Am for transatlantic flights.
On June 27, 1931, Sikorsky filed for a patent for another "direct lift aircraft", and was awarded patent No. 1,994,488 on March 19, 1935. His design plans eventually culminated in the first (tethered) flight of the Vought-Sikorsky VS-300 on September 14, 1939, with the first free flight occurring eight months later on May 24, 1940. Sikorsky's success with the VS-300 led to the R-4, which became the world's first mass-produced helicopter, in 1942. The helicopter continued testing throughout World War II and did not see action until the Korean War in the early 1950s. 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.
Sikorsky was married to Olga Fyodorovna Simkovitch in the Russian Empire. They were divorced and Olga remained in Russia with their daughter, Tania, as Sikorsky departed following the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. In 1923, Sikorsky's sisters immigrated to the U.S., bringing six-year-old Tania with them. Sikorsky married Elisabeth Semion (1903–1995) in 1924, in New York. Sikorsky and Elisabeth had four sons; Sergei, Nikolai, Igor Jr. and George.
Sikorsky died at his home in Easton, Connecticut, on October 26, 1972, and is buried in Saint John the Baptist Russian Orthodox Cemetery, located on Nichols Avenue in Stratford.[1]
Religious views
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 life, pain, and death. No one can take this sublime meaning of life away from us, and this is the one thing that matters.[2]
