Original taken from mgsupgs in Igor Sikorsky.

It is interesting that when our compatriots remember Igor Sikorsky, “Ilya Muromets” immediately pops up, and of course helicopters.

Moreover, one gets the impression that Igor Ivanovich created "Ilya" on a whim, from scratch in the field, according to a drawing he had in a dream and fell asleep again. And he woke up after the Second World War in America, where he created several helicopters and disappeared ...
But things were a little different...

Igor Sikorsky was born into the family of Ivan Sikorsky, a professor of psychiatry, a prominent Kyiv figure in the Union of the Russian People. He inherited right-wing, monarchist views from his father, which he adhered to for the rest of his life.

The Sikorsky House in Kyiv.

Igor Ivanovich began to study at the 1st Kyiv Gymnasium, but soon wished to follow in the footsteps of his older brother and entered the Naval Cadet Corps in St. Petersburg. He liked the environment of naval officers, here he found real friends. However, every year he became more and more aware of his true calling. At the end of general education classes, he leaves the building in order to enter a higher technical institution and become an engineer. But the year was 1906, Russian educational institutions were experiencing the consequences of revolutionary events and actually did not work. In order not to waste time, the young Sikorsky leaves to study in Paris, at the Duvigno de Lano Technical School.

A year later, he returns and enters the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. However, he is so taken with the idea of ​​building a flying machine that he forgets about his studies. He received an engineering diploma only in 1914. "Honoris Causa" at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute for the creation of multi-engine airships.

Like many other aviation pioneers, Sikorsky began with flying models. He built his first model at the age of twelve. It was a helicopter - he was already interested in vertically taking off vehicles. In 1908-1909. he consults with leading domestic and foreign experts, visits France and Germany, buys the engine and the necessary parts of the structure. And in July 1909, in the courtyard of his Kyiv house, a twenty-year-old student completed the assembly of the first helicopter in Russia, brought to the stage of full-scale tests. However, its lifting force was still insufficient. In the early spring of next year, Sikorsky is building a second helicopter in the same way. This rotorcraft was able to lift its own weight. At the same time, Sikorsky successfully experiments with snowmobiles of his own design. On them, as well as on helicopters, he learns to design and build propellers, and then directs all his energy to create more promising machines at that time - airplanes.

Together with another student of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, F.I. Bylinkin, at the Kurenevsky airfield in Kyiv, Sikorsky is building a shed-workshop, where their first aircraft is born - a small two-pillar BiS-1 biplane. Alas, the engine power was not enough for takeoff, he could only bounce. Sikorsky managed to take to the air for the first time only on June 3, 1910 on another machine - BiS-2 (S-2).

The capricious Anzani engines prevented this aircraft, as well as the modifications that followed it, from becoming truly manned vehicles. But the young designer did not lose hope. The family supported him in all endeavors.

Success came when, in the spring of 1911, the fifth Sikorsky aircraft, the C-5, was built, which surpassed the previous ones in terms of size, power and reliability of the power plant. On this biplane, Sikorsky passed the exam for the title of pilot, set four all-Russian records, made demonstration flights and even gave passengers a ride. At the beginning of September 1911, military maneuvers took place. A talented young designer took part in them and demonstrated the superiority of his aircraft over foreign aircraft. Around the same time, he built several light aircraft in his own workshop on the orders of his friends - Kyiv students. He liked to be not only a designer and constant tester of his aircraft, but also a training pilot. Newspapers and magazines started talking about the aviation workshops and the flight school of the Kyiv student, he was called the "Russian Farman".

In the same year, 1911, Sikorsky developed his sixth aircraft (C-6) with a more powerful engine and a three-seater cabin. On it, he set a world speed record in flight with two passengers. Working on improving the aerodynamic characteristics of this model, the designer built a small aerodynamic laboratory. The modernized C-6A aircraft earned the Grand Gold Medal of the Moscow Aeronautical Exhibition in April 1912, and shortly before that, the Russian Technical Society awarded Sikorsky the Medal of Honor "for useful work in aeronautics and for the independent development of an airplane of its system, which gave excellent results."

After that, the half-educated student immediately received two very flattering offers from St. Petersburg: firstly, he was invited to the post of chief engineer of the naval aviation being established; secondly, to the position of designer of the newly formed aeronautical department of the joint-stock company "Russian-Baltic Wagon Plant" (RBVZ). He accepted both and moved with a group of closest collaborators from Kyiv to the capital of the empire.

C7 (fought in the Balkans)

Thanks to this combination of circumstances, Sikorsky managed to make a great contribution to the creation of a special kind of troops - the aviation of the Russian Navy, and he can rightfully be considered one of its founders. However, after serving only a year, he retired from the naval service, giving himself entirely to work at the RBVZ. From the summer of 1912, he became both the chief designer and the manager at this plant. The outstanding organizer of domestic mechanical engineering, the chairman of the board of the RBVZ, M.V. Shidlovsky, had a great influence on the fate of Igor Ivanovich. He made a bet on a twenty-three-year-old student and was not mistaken. At RBVZ, one after another, new Sikorsky aircraft appear - biplanes and monoplanes - which arouse invariable admiration from both the general public and specialists and bring Russia fame as one of the leading aviation powers. The creation of each aircraft meant an important leap forward.

During only 1912 and 1913. thanks to the talent and work of Sikorsky, the following appeared in Russia: the first seaplane; the first aircraft sold abroad; the first specially designed training aircraft; first production aircraft; the first monocoque aircraft; the first aerobatic aircraft, etc. Three aircraft designed by Sikorsky came out as winners at international competitions for military aircraft, proving in a bitter struggle their advantages over the latest foreign aircraft. The S-10 reconnaissance aircraft had a dozen and a half modifications, which by the beginning of the First World War formed the basis of the naval aviation of the Baltic Fleet. The maneuverable S-12 was also mass-produced and then successfully used at the front. At the same time, licensed production of some types of foreign aircraft was established at the plant. Thus, Sikorsky can rightly be counted among the founders of the domestic aviation industry.

Landing "Ilya Muromets"

On Russian soil, Sikorsky was destined to give life to one of his greatest creations. Back in 1911, after a forced landing that almost cost him his life, Igor Ivanovich thought about ways to improve the reliability of aircraft and directions for their further development. By the middle of next year, he had already thoroughly developed the concept of a promising aircraft, specially designed for operation in the vast Russian expanses in our difficult climate.

In accordance with this concept, the device was designed multi-engine, with a crew of several people, access to the main parts of the structure for repair in the air was also provided. The possibility of such a gigantic aircraft was dismissed at the time by most aviation authorities. Nevertheless, the chairman of the board of RBVZ supported his twenty-three-year-old chief designer. And in March 1913, the world's first four-engine air giant was built.

At first it was called S-9 "Grand", and after some modifications - "Russian Knight". The rumor about the air giant rolled across Russia. In Europe, they were surprised and did not believe. Emperor Nicholas expressed a desire to examine it. The plane was transferred to Krasnoe Selo, the king boarded. Soon Sikorsky was given a memorable gift from him - a gold watch.

The aircraft, surpassing in size and take-off weight all so far built, marked the beginning of a new direction in aviation - heavy aircraft construction. It became the prototype for all subsequent passenger airliners, heavy bombers and transport aircraft.

The creation of multi-engine giant aircraft brought Sikorsky world fame. He became a national hero of Russia. Cars similar to the Russian Knight appeared abroad only a few years later. Further development of the design of the Russian Knight is the four-engine Ilya Muromets. He took to the air already in December of the same 1913. Rearranged on floats, he remained until 1917 the largest seaplane in the world. For the first time in the world, serial production of air giants began at RBVZ.

During the First World War, the Muromets were effectively used as heavy bombers and long-range reconnaissance aircraft. Of these, the Squadron of Airships was formed - the first formation of strategic aviation. Sikorsky himself participated in the organization of the squadron, trained the crews and worked out the tactics of their combat use. He spent a lot of time at the front, watching his aircraft in action, and making the necessary changes to their design. A total of 85 Muromtsevs of six main types were built. Each type had a number of modifications.

In addition to heavy bombers, Sikorsky created in 1914-1917. light fighters, naval reconnaissance, light reconnaissance fighter, twin-engine fighter-bomber and attack aircraft, i.e. an almost complete fleet of aircraft of all types used in the World War. In addition, under the leadership of Igor Ivanovich, aircraft engines, equipment and weapons were developed and mass-produced, new factories were built for their production. A powerful diversified domestic aviation industry was being formed. Total in Russia in 1909-1917. Sikorsky created two and a half dozen basic aircraft models (not counting their modifications and joint developments), two helicopters, three snowmobiles and one aircraft engine.

The government appreciated the man who multiplied the power and glory of the country. At the age of 25, Sikorsky became a knight of the Order of St. Vladimir IV degree, equal in value to the Order of St. George, but in the civil sphere. By the age of 28, he was already a national hero.

The revolution abruptly changed the fate of the famous designer. From the middle of 1917, all work at the RBVZ practically stopped. None of the aircraft of the new design (C-21 - C-27) was completed. Production was in a fever with rallies and strikes. Soldiers at the front and workers in the rear began cracking down on officers and engineers they disliked. Sikorsky was known for his devotion to the throne. He has been threatened before. But with the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, the last hopes for the restoration of the former order disappeared. Igor Ivanovich accepts the invitation of the French government to continue working at the Allied factories. Leaving his young wife and newly born daughter Tatyana in the care of relatives, he sails in March 1918 from Murmansk abroad.

The First World War ended before Sikorsky had time to build the French version of Ilya Muromets. There were no more jobs in France. Russia is engulfed in civil war. In 1919, Igor Ivanovich decides to move to the USA, where, as he believed, there are more prospects for heavy aircraft construction.

However, overseas, as in post-war Europe, the aircraft industry was rapidly declining. Sikorsky, who arrived in New York, found himself without a livelihood and was forced to work as an evening school teacher. In 1923, he managed to put together a company of Russian emigrants involved in aviation - engineers, workers and pilots. They formed the backbone of the small aircraft manufacturing firm Sikorsky Aeroengineering Corporation established in New York. Life somehow got better. Two sisters and a daughter came from the USSR. His wife refused to emigrate, and Igor Ivanovich entered into a second marriage with Elizaveta Alekseevna Semenova. The marriage was happy. Four sons appeared one after another: Sergei, Nikolai, Igor and George.

The first Sikorsky S-29 aircraft built in exile was assembled in 1924 in a chicken coop that belonged to one of the founders of Russian naval aviation, V.V. Uthgofu. Many of our emigrants provided assistance to the "Russian firm". S. V. Rakhmaninov at one time was even listed as the vice-president of the corporation.

This twin-engine biplane became the largest in America and one of the best in its class. He immediately gained world fame, which was an unpleasant surprise for the Bolsheviks, who did not expect new success from the “tsar's godson and Black Hundreds” they hated. "Aviation White Guard" - this is how the Soviet press responded to reports of the emergence of a "Russian company" in the United States. The name of Sikorsky was given political anathema.

But the 20s were coming. The time for heavy transport aircraft had not yet arrived - there was almost no demand for them. Sikorsky had to switch to light aviation. First, a single-engine reconnaissance aircraft appeared, then a single-engine passenger, an aviette and a twin-engine amphibian. All aircraft (S-31-S-34) were sold, but experience has shown that the American aircraft market is already well supplied with light aircraft. The designer again began to try his luck on heavy biplanes. This time they were intended for a flight across the Atlantic. In case of success, the creators of the first transoceanic aircraft were expected not only by world fame, but also by solid orders.

Having learned about this, Russian emigrants scattered all over the world perceived the construction of the giant S-35 as the most important national cause and began to send Sikorsky their modest savings from all over the world. In the future, it was supposed to use such aircraft to form a national Russian airline under the auspices of the heir to the throne, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich. Alas, Sikorsky failed: the S-35 crashed under mysterious circumstances at the time of launch. And when the next giant was built, the transatlantic flight had already been completed. This aircraft, like the previous ones, remained only in a few copies.

For the development of the company, it was necessary to create a machine that was in great demand. She became a ten-seat twin-engine amphibian. Newspapers wrote that the S-38 amphibious "revolutionized aviation" that it flew, landed and splashed down "where only Indian pies and hunting boats used to be." There were legends about the reliability and safety of the amphibian.

Sikorsky's "Russian firm", renamed "Sikorsky Aviation Corporation", received a lot of orders and reliably "got on the wing". The firm moved from Long Island, where it rented premises, to its own plant in Stratford, near Bridgeport, Connecticut.

In June 1929, she was accepted into the powerful corporation United Aircraft and Transport (now United Technologies), of which she exists today. Having lost its independence, Sikorsky's firm received reliable economic support on the eve of the Great Depression. It is interesting to note that in 1929 three of the five aircraft manufacturing firms that were part of the corporation (Sikorsky, Hamilton, and Chance-Vout) had "white émigrés" as chief designers.

"Sikorsky Aviation" quickly gained strength, its staff increased. Its main creative backbone was still made up of emigrants from Russia. Sikorsky's reliable support, his first assistant and deputy, was the outstanding designer and scientist, aerodynamicist Mikhail Evgenievich Glukharev. His younger brother Sergei was also a talented designer and organizer. In addition to the Glukharev brothers, talented engineers Mikhail Byuvid, Boris Labensky and Nikolai Gladkevich spent their entire emigre life next to Sikorsky. About his closest friends and associates, the chief designer said: "They are ready to die for me, just as I am for them." For a long time, the legendary pilot Boris Vasilyevich Sergievsky worked as the chief pilot of the company, the heads of various services were Vyacheslav Kudryavtsev, Baron Nikolai Solovyov, Georgy Meirer, Vladimir Bari, Leonid Lapin and many other well-known engineers and production managers in America and abroad.

Sikorsky's "Russian Firm" became a Mecca for emigrants. Here, many people from the former Russian Empire found work and received a specialty, who previously had nothing to do with aviation. Regular officers of the fleet, such as S. de Bosset, V. Kachinsky and V. Ofenberg, having worked hard as workers and draftsmen, headed various divisions of the company. A simple worker at the firm was Admiral B.A. Blokhin. A well-known historiographer of the white movement, Cossack General S.V.Denisov prepared his historical research while working as a night watchman for the Sikorsky Corporation. Some of the Russian emigrants subsequently left the firm and glorified their names in other enterprises and in other areas. Well-known aviation scientists came out of Sikorsky's firm - teachers of American universities N.A. Aleksandrov, V.N. Gartsev, A.A. Nikolsky, I.A. Sikorsky and others. Baron Solovyov created his own aviation company on Long Island. Sergievsky founded a helicopter design company in New York. Meirer organized production at another "Russian" aircraft manufacturing company, Seversky. V.V. Utgof became one of the organizers of the US Coast Guard aviation. The first priest of the factory church, Father S.I. Antonyuk, received the post of archbishop of Western Canada. Sergey Bobylev, the head of the model shop of the company, founded a large construction company. Cavalry General K.K. Agoev organized in Stratford a stable of tribal horses known throughout America.

The existence of the Sikorsky firm in Stratford contributed to the emergence of a powerful Russian colony in this city. Exiles from our country settled closer to their own. Many of them have never worked for the Sikorsky Corporation, but nevertheless they always treated the head and founder of this enterprise with great respect. Igor Ivanovich until the end of his life remained one of the most respected residents of the city. He did a lot for the colony of compatriots. The emigrants opened a club, a school, built an Orthodox church of St. Nicholas and even created a Russian opera. Since then, some areas of Stratford have Russian names: Churaevka, Russian Beach, Dachi, etc. It is interesting to note that some emigrants who lived in this city and moved only in the Russian environment never learned English.

Sikorsky created successful serial amphibians: a five-seat "flying yacht", a sixteen-seat amphibian and a forty-five-seat "air clipper" S-40. Four-engine aircraft of this type became the first serial heavy passenger airliners that were operated on regular long-distance airlines. When testing the first "clipper", Sikorsky, having entered the passenger compartment, suddenly discovered that in reality he sees a complete repetition of the dream that he had in childhood. The dream came true after 30 years!

Flying boat "Sikorsky S-42 Clipper", 1934

On amphibians and "flying boats" of Sikorsky, the world-famous airline "Pan American" became established. She also ordered the aircraft designer multi-engine passenger airliners designed for regular transoceanic transportation. The first elegant "flying boat" S-42 arrived in 1934 on a passenger line connecting both continents of America, the second in 1935 opened flights across the Pacific Ocean. In 1937, the first passenger flights across the Atlantic began on serial aircraft of this type. So Sikorsky's "flying boat" became the first aircraft to reliably connect the continents. Based on the four-engine S-42, the designer created a smaller twin-engine amphibian, which was widely used in different parts of the world and acquired by many countries, including the Soviet Union. The purchased "White émigré" amphibian was even filmed in the famous movie "Volga-Volga", symbolizing the success of socialist construction.

Sikorsky's last aircraft was the large four-engine "flying boat" S-44, created in 1937. It was quite a good aircraft, but the time of "air clippers" has irrevocably passed, the giant amphibious S-45 remained in the project. Orders for boats and amphibians plummeted. The board of United Aircraft even decided to merge Sikorsky with Chane Vout. To restore independence, the fifty-year-old designer had to urgently “change the genre”, look for a more promising niche. And here again, as before, he was helped by the support of old comrades-in-arms, Russian emigrants. They rejected seemingly tempting invitations to return to their homeland, to Soviet Russia, and began in 1938 to develop a fundamentally new and at that time unknown aircraft - a helicopter. The great designer for the third time began his creative career practically from scratch, in the backyard of the united Vout-Sikorsky plant. Ahead of him was a new glory, perhaps surpassing everything he had previously achieved.

Helicopter era.

The first experimental helicopter Sikorsky took to the air under his control on September 14, 1939. It had a single-rotor scheme with a swashplate and a tail tail rotor. At present, this scheme has become a classic, over 90% of helicopters around the world have been built according to it, but then most aircraft designers considered it unpromising.

After two years of intense testing and fine-tuning of the experimental apparatus, in 1942, an experimental two-seat helicopter S-47 (R-4) was created, which soon entered mass production. It was the only helicopter of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition used on the fronts of the Second World War. Sikorsky's shares went up again. The board of United Aircraft restored the independence of Sikorsky Aircraft, which soon received a new production base of its own in Bridgeport. This base remained the main center of the Sikorsky firm until 1955, when, due to a large increase in orders, a new plant was built in Stratford, where Sikorsky returned his residence.

Sikorsky himself raised his dream car into the air, and from that moment on, the design of helicopters captured him completely. Since then, he has not retreated from his goal, despite the difficulties. Fate paid him off in full when on May 6, 1941, taking off in a VS-300 helicopter, he set a flight duration record, staying in the air for 1 hour 32 minutes and 26 seconds. The command of the American army became interested in his car. The specially designed XR-4 (S-47) helicopter made its first flight on January 14, 1947, and then the military carried out thorough tests of this machine. A helicopter piloted by L. Morris was flown over a distance of 500 km, landing and taking off in remote places, landing and taking off on a moving ship, and a test was carried out in low temperatures in Alaska.

The command of the US Navy wanted to have a helicopter that could be used in all weather conditions, both day and night, equipped with a deep-sea locator and at the same time capable of carrying weapons weighing up to 380 kg. Sikorsky fulfilled all the requirements, presenting the S-58 helicopter on March 8, 1954, and the S-61 on March 11, 1959, which was equipped with stabilizing buoys connected to the helicopter body, a retractable landing gear and a five-bladed propeller driven by propelled by two uniaxial turbine engines.

Helicopter Sikorsky H-34 (manufacturer designation S-58)

The Lazy Green Giant went on to become famous as a rescue helicopter when used by the US Army in the Vietnam War. This helicopter brought financial success to Sikorsky's company - the machine entered service with the armies of many countries: Great Britain, Canada, Japan, Italy.

The era of big helicopters has come. For the aviation of the naval forces, Sikorsky creates a large transport helicopter powered by three S-65 turbines.

Its main task was to quickly transport a large number of landing troops. The fuselage of this helicopter was made waterproof, the helicopter was armed with a 105 mm howitzer, it could carry 38 soldiers with full equipment. The radius of action was 2100 km. The next model of the S-67 helicopter was capable of transporting a group of 11 soldiers with combat equipment over a distance of up to 2130 km. In this model, two turbine engines were used, with a capacity of 1376 kW (1870 hp) each, providing the helicopter with a high payload and a speed of 355 km / h. The S-70 "Black Hawk" helicopter was a modified and supplemented version of the S-67 model and was supposed to be the highest achievement of the aircraft factory, which in March 1973 celebrated its fiftieth anniversary.

Helicopter Sikorsky UH-60 "Black Hawk" (manufacturer designation S-70)

Unfortunately, Sikorsky was not destined to see this car. He died on October 25, 1972 in Easton, Connecticut, USA. During his turbulent and unusually eventful life, he was awarded many medals and academic titles from both American and many other universities.

In an interview on the eve of his 75th birthday to a correspondent of the Voice of America radio station, I.I. Sikorsky said:

« I am very glad... to send my warm greetings to the people of the great Motherland, which gave me life... None of us wants war, ruin, or destruction. We must all stand up and make a strong demand to those in power: we want peace! Nobody wants war. No one wins, but everyone can die.

I wanted to convey this message of mine along with my deep, warm, sincere greetings to all the inhabitants of the country in which I began my life and to which I owe infinitely much in all my future destiny.».

The founder of the world helicopter industry for a long time remained at an unattainable height. Under his leadership, helicopters of all existing classes were created and brought to serial production. He was called "helicopter pilot number 1." In the USA, he created 17 basic types of aircraft and 18 helicopters.

During his life, Sikorsky received over 80 various honorary awards, prizes and diplomas. Among them are the Russian Order of St. Vladimir of the 4th degree, which has already been mentioned here, as well as the medals of David Guggenheim, James Watt, a diploma from the National Gallery of Inventors' Fame. In 1948, he received a rare award, the Wright Brothers Memorial Prize, and in 1967, he was awarded the John Fritz Medal of Honor for scientific and technological achievements in the field of fundamental and applied sciences. In aviation, besides him, only Orville Wright was awarded it. Sikorsky was honorary doctor of many universities.

Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky is Russian by birth. He was born in 1889 and grew up in Kyiv, where his father, Ivan Sikorsky, was a professor of psychology at St. Vladimir's Imperial University. Young Sikorsky received his secondary education in one of the classical gymnasiums in Kyiv and was later admitted to the Naval Cadet Corps.

Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky is Russian by birth. He was born in 1889 and grew up in Kyiv, where his father, Ivan Sikorsky, was a professor of psychology at St. Vladimir's Imperial University. Professor Sikorsky, the author of numerous scientific articles, was quite well known at that time. Young Sikorsky received his secondary education in one of the classical gymnasiums in Kyiv and was later admitted to the Naval Cadet Corps. After his graduation, he entered the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Igor Sikorsky also attended lectures on mathematics, chemistry and shipbuilding in Paris. As a child, Igor was by nature a quiet and curious child, showing a penchant for mechanics. At the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, he became interested in aviation and the construction of aircraft, organized and headed the student aviation society. While Sikorsky was studying at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, he designed and built the Grand at an aircraft factory owned by the Russian-Baltic Carriage Works.

After his first flight, the young designer pilot began flying the Grande over St. Petersburg and its suburbs almost every day. Many people wanted to get on board as passengers. In order to measure the aircraft's performance, Sikorsky also made test flights. During one of these test flights, he stopped the engines in a certain sequence: first he turned off one engine, then one on the left side and one on the right, finally he turned off both engines on one side. During all of these test flights, the Grand maintained its stability, confirming the theory of a young inventor from Kyiv that multi-engine aircraft could fly with one or more engines switched off. Disbelief reigned abroad. Some foreigners nicknamed Sikorsky's airplane the "Petersburg Duck".

Flights on the Grande continued throughout the summer of 1913, and Sikorsky's aircraft set several records. For all this time, the Grand has never failed. It turned out to be a unique flying machine - both in Russia and in the world. Grand could not fail to attract attention, including keen interest from military circles.

In the summer of 1913, Emperor Nicholas II expressed his desire to see Grand. For this royal inspection, Igor Sikorsky flew his aircraft to Tsarskoye Selo and landed at a military airfield near the Emperor's headquarters. His Majesty examined the Grand carefully, then climbed the ladder to the balcony of the aircraft, where he examined the cockpit. He also had a friendly conversation with Sikorsky, expressing to the young inventor his pleasure at his remarkable achievement. As a memento of this meeting, the Emperor presented Sikorsky with a watch, which became a precious gift for the young designer, reminiscent of the gratitude and favor of the Emperor.

Sikorsky set out to build a flying machine as early as 1908 when he first tried to build a helicopter. This helicopter, equipped as an experiment with a 25-horsepower engine, is of historical interest as the basis for Sikorsky's subsequent work with helicopters. By 1910, he had built his second helicopter, which had two counter-rotating propellers. The weak apparatus could take off only without a pilot.

In the same year, Sikorsky lost interest in helicopters and built a prototype of his biplane, the C-1, which was powered by a 15 hp engine. On his modernized S-2, equipped with a 25-horsepower engine, he managed to climb to a height of 180 meters and set a new All-Russian record. His C-3, equipped with a 35-horsepower engine, was built at the end of 1910. Sikorsky's flight on S-3 lasted for 59 seconds.

By 1911, the young inventor had built the C-4 and C-5 aircraft. Both types have shown good results. In a series of tests, Sikorsky reached a height of 500 meters and flew for an hour.

In late 1911, Igor Sikorsky built his S-6 and improved his S-6A in the spring of 1912. Piloting the S-6A, Sikorsky won first prize in a competition organized by the military. Among the eleven aircraft that entered the competition, several were designed and built by renowned European aviation firms such as Farman, Nieuport and Fokker. It should be noted that all Sikorsky aircraft built before the C-6 were built by a young inventor in a barn on the territory of the Kyiv estate, which belonged to his father. Subsequent designs, starting with the S-7 model, were built in St. Petersburg at the aircraft factory of the Russian-Baltic Carriage Works (R-BVZ).

R-BVZ founded an aviation department with the aim of building airplanes of Russian design. This provided Sikorsky with a unique opportunity to be creative in aircraft design.

For the construction of his first machines, Sikorsky spent his own money, which was not so much. It should also be mentioned that his twenty-year-old sister, Olga Ivanovna, provided him with financial and emotional support. Later, she accompanied her brother to America, where she died on February 14, 1926. Those who knew Olga Ivanovna from St. Petersburg remembered her as a cordial hostess who received guests in the airfield hangar and served them tea in an impromptu tea room.

Together with Sikorsky at the Russian-Baltic Carriage Works, pilots G.V. Yankovsky and G.V. Alekhnovich, a student of the Polytechnic Institute A.A. Serebryannikov, who worked in the construction and design of aircraft, and an engine mechanic V. Panasyuk worked. Panasyuk later made, together with Sikorsky, a grandiose flight from St. Petersburg to Kyiv.

The first aircraft built by Sikorsky at the Russian-Baltic Carriage Works was the S-7 monoplane, which was later purchased by pilot Lerhe. At the same aircraft factory in St. Petersburg, the S-7, S-9 and S-10 aircraft were produced, equipped with Gnome rotary engines. The S-10 was equipped with floats and was intended for the Russian navy.

In early 1913, Igor Sikorsky designed and built the S-11 monoplane. G. Yankovsky, flying on this airplane, won the second prize in the competition in St. Petersburg, which took place in the spring of the same year. Alekhnovich won second prize at C-10. In the spring of 1914, Sikorsky built the S-12 biplane, which was specially designed to perform dead loops. Yankovsky, flying on this plane, won first place in aerobatics during the aviation week, which was held at the Kolymazhsky Hippodrome. On the same S-12, Yankovsky set an all-Russian record, climbing to a height of 3900 meters.

Among other small Sikorsky airplanes produced by the aviation branch of the Russo-Baltic Plant, his S-16 and S-20 biplanes are worthy of mention. (Only the C-7, C-11 and C-12 were monoplanes, all of his other single-engine aircraft were biplanes). The C-16 was equipped with an 80-horsepower Ron engine and a 100-horsepower Gnome-Mono-Supap. Its speed was 140 km per hour, the aircraft was light, maneuverable and easy to fly. In 1915, the C-16 was turned into a fighter by installing a machine gun that fired through a propeller. The S-20 was an improved version of the latter. During World War I, some of Sikorsky's small airplanes were in service with the Russian army. Despite their outstanding performance, these aircraft were not widely used for reasons that will be mentioned below. But, of course, one of these reasons was the Russian fascination with everything foreign.

In addition to these aircraft, in 1912, at the branch of the Russian-Baltic Carriage Works in St. Petersburg, Igor Sikorsky invented and built the world's first snowmobile.

Back in 1911, Igor Sikorsky came to the conclusion that the future belongs not to small single-engine airplanes, but to large aircraft with two or more engines. This belief originates from an unusual incident: a mosquito, accidentally caught in a carburetor jet, caused the engine to stop and Sikorsky nearly died. Fortunately, Sikorsky avoided mortal danger by landing his airplane between the railroad cars and the wall. According to Sikorsky, large multi-engine aircraft had certain advantages over single-engine types, especially the flight range and the ability to lift a large load into the air. Moreover, large winged machines would be controlled not by one pilot, but by a whole crew, in the same way as a ship at sea. A multi-engine aircraft would be safer: if one engine stops, the others keep running. In addition, pilots flying multi-engine aircraft can choose more suitable landing sites in emergency situations.

Igor Sikorsky expressed his ideas for a large aircraft to Mikhail Vladimirovich Shidlovsky, chairman of the Russian-Baltic Wagon Company. The aviation branch of Shidlovsky in St. Petersburg until that time had built only small, single-engine aircraft. Shidlovsky got acquainted with the details of the Sikorsky project, having carefully studied the drawings and calculations of a large aircraft. After listening carefully to the young inventor, Shidlovsky accepted the proposed project with enthusiasm and gave instructions to immediately begin work on the creation of this unique aircraft. On August 30, 1912, the construction of the Grand began. The Grand was the world's first four-engine aircraft, the forerunner of all modern giant aircraft.

Shidlovsky played a leading role in the construction of the Grand and, later, in the development of Russian "heavy aviation". He had a bright entrepreneurial talent and achieved various achievements in this field. Shidlovsky came from an old noble family of the Voronezh province. Having become an officer of the navy, he circumnavigated the world aboard the sailing vessel "Plastun". Later, immediately after graduating from the Alexander Military Law Academy, he retired and joined the Ministry of Finance. As a high-ranking government official, he became an influential figure, serving as a member of the Council of State until his appointment as commander of the Airship Squadron (AES). EVK became a special squadron that flew during the First World War on Sikorsky's Ilya Muromets bombers.

After becoming chairman of the Russian-Baltic Carriage Works in Riga, Shidlovsky quickly increased the firm's productivity and profitability. R-BVZ produced railway cars not only for domestic needs, but also for export. In addition to building the Grand and, later, Ilya Muromets Sikorsky, Shidlovsky oversaw the production of the first and only Russian automobile known as the Russo-Balt. These cars were produced specifically for Russian roads and had to pass a series of severe road tests. Their quality was demonstrated during the Nagel Rally held in Russia, Western Europe and North Africa. The use of Russian-Baltic vehicles by military drivers during the war years, even on simple roads, further strengthened their reputation as very hardy. Some of these Russo-Balts passed thousands and thousands of versts during the war without repair. Shidlovsky's other wartime contribution was the production in 1915 of the first and only Russian aircraft engine, the R-BVZ, built at the Russian-Baltic factory.

In 1919, M. V. Shidlovsky, together with his son, attempted to cross the Finnish border and hide from the Bolsheviks, but was captured and brutally killed.

The construction of the Grand in the spring of 1913 owes much to the generous patronage of Shidlovsky. This flying machine, even during the first flight, justified his decision to support Sikorsky's idea of ​​building the world's first four-engine aircraft. Grand flew as expected of him. It should be added that Shidlovsky was so confident in Grand's safety that he flew on Igor Sikorsky's plane with his entire family. He later showed the same trust in Grand's heir, Ilya Muromets.

The Grand was made of wood and weighed over 4 tons. This large aircraft was designed with a spacious enclosed cockpit with large windows for crew and passengers. From the cockpit, the pilot could go to the balcony located in front of the aircraft. Side exits were also provided leading to the lower wings and providing access to the engines for in-flight repairs. The aircraft was equipped with four 100 hp German Argus engines. These automotive-type engines were located on the lower wings, two on each side of the fuselage. The Grand could carry a load of 737 kg and fly at a speed of 96 km per hour. Sikorsky's initial test flights of the Grand proved that his concept of a large, multi-engined aircraft was a success. These same flights revealed defects in the original design that needed attention, especially the Grand's inability to reach high altitude.

Encouraged by the Grand's success, Sikorsky set about building his second larger aircraft, which he called the Ilya Muromets. Ilya Muromets was also equipped with 100 hp Argus engines. The dimensions of this new variant were as follows: it weighed almost 5,000 kg, had wingspan of 31 meters and a total area of ​​150 square meters. Subsequent versions of Ilya Muromets, like the Grand, were made of wood.

Construction of Ilya Muromets began in the autumn of 1913 and was completed in January 1914. In general, its configuration was similar to Grand's original design, but Sikorsky removed the front balcony. He provided the cockpit with six large windows on each side. The new Ilya Muromets was finished with comfort. There were wicker chairs in the cockpit. Heating of enclosed spaces was provided by exhaust gases (from pipes acting as radiators and leading from internal engines). Electric lighting was provided by a special wind generator. In addition to the pilot's cabin, there was a passenger room, a bedroom and even a toilet on board.

Test flights of Sikorsky on Ilya Muromets were carried out in adverse winter conditions. During thaws, the ground became wet and viscous. It was decided to equip Ilya Muromets with skis. Only in this way could the aircraft take to the air. These flights demonstrated that the new variant was superior to the Grand. Under normal conditions, Ilya Muromets needed a distance of 400 steps to take off. Despite its greater weight and the same Argus engines, Ilya Muromets could lift a larger payload than the Grand to a height of 1000 meters.

In February 1914, Sikorsky lifted Ilya Muromets into the air with 16 passengers on board. During this memorable flight, there was another passenger on board, the favorite of the entire airfield - a dog named Shkalik. This unusual flight with numerous passengers was an unprecedented achievement. The payload during this flight over St. Petersburg was 1300 kg. Following the example of Grand, Ilya Muromets made many flights over the imperial capital and its suburbs. Quite often, Ilya Muromets flew over the city at a low altitude - about 400 meters. Sikorsky was so confident in the safety provided by the aircraft's multiple engines that he was not afraid to fly at such a low altitude. In those days, pilots who flew small, single-engine aircraft generally avoided flying over cities, especially at low altitudes, because mid-air engine shutdown and the inevitable forced landing could prove fatal.

During these flights, made by Ilya Muromets, passengers could sit comfortably in a closed cabin and observe the majestic squares and boulevards of St. Petersburg. Each flight of Ilya Muromets brought all transport to a halt as whole crowds gathered to look at the huge plane with its engines making a lot of noise.

By the spring of 1914, Sikorsky built a second Ilya of Muromets. It was equipped with more powerful Argus engines, two inboard engines, 140 hp, and two external ones, 125 hp. The total engine power of the second model reached 530 hp, which was 130 hp more than the power of the first Ilya Muromets. Accordingly, more engine power meant greater payload, speed and the ability to reach a height of 2100 meters. During the initial test flight, this second Ilya Muromets carried 820 kg of fuel and 6 passengers.

An excerpt from the book by K. Finne "Russian air heroes of I.I. Sikorsky"

I must say that the Sikorsky family was not connected with aviation at all. Father Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky, Ivan Alekseevich, was a well-known psychotherapist, professor at Kyiv University, founder of the Medical and Pedagogical Institute for mentally retarded children and the Institute of Child Psychopathology, a real state adviser (which corresponded to the rank of major general). Grandfather, although he had Polish roots, was a Kyiv priest. Mother, Maria Stefanovna (nee - Temryuk-Cherkasova) was also a doctor by education. However, born in May 1889, Igor did not become either a doctor or a priest. Since childhood, the boy, who was the fifth child in the family, dreamed of a brilliant career as a naval officer. And so, having studied a little at the 1st Kyiv gymnasium, he begged his parents to transfer him to the St. Petersburg Naval Cadet Corps. There he studied for three years, until he finally realized that the navy was not his place. Than to execute or command, he likes to invent and create more. He realized that the sky attracted him more than the sea.

However, in the middle of the first decade of the last century, in Russia, boiling with the first revolution, it was difficult to find a normally functioning technical educational institution, so the 17-year-old Igor went temporarily to study in Paris, at the Duvigno de Lano Technical School. And only in 1907, when the motherland more or less calmed down and cooled down, the young student returned home and entered the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.

10/01/1934. Aircraft designer Igor Sikorsky (left) in the cockpit. Photo: RIA Novosti

However, then he was already especially not up to school. Sikorsky wanted to build a flying machine, the era of which was just beginning. Having traveled around France and Germany, Igor collects spare parts, buys an engine, and from all this, adding parts made by himself, in 1909 he completes the construction of the first helicopter in Russia in the courtyard of his father's house in Kyiv. However, its lifting force was not enough even to lift the apparatus into the air, without any load, not to mention the pilot. Therefore, by the spring of next year, Igor is building the next model, much more advanced. He could already lift as many as 9 pounds (almost 150 kg) into the air. However, since the apparatus itself weighed a little less, the maximum that it could do was take to the air, carrying a couple of tens of kilos of useless load.

Having failed with vertical take-off vehicles, Sikorsky switched to the more common and less technically complex horizontal. Already by the beginning of 1910, he, together with his classmate Bylinkin, was building his first BiS-1 aircraft ("Bylinkin and Sikorsky"). However, this first aircraft experience, just like the first helicopter experience, could not fly. Its power was only enough to “jump” over the airfield and land after a couple of tens of meters. Only in June 1910, already on the BiS-2, did the young aviators finally manage to truly take to the air, where Igor had been striving for so many years.

Only the fifth aircraft of the designer, the C-5, became truly successful, surpassing foreign models in all respects. On it, in 1911, he passed the exams for an aviator's license. Even then, the newspapers called him "Russian Farman." And Igor tried to justify the title. On his next S-6 device, he set a world speed record when flying with 2 passengers - 111 km / h, and from 5 - 102 km / h. And in the next 2 years, under his leadership, on the basis of the "Russian-Baltic Wagon Plant" (RBVZ), in St. Petersburg were built:

• first seaplane;
• the first Russian aircraft sold abroad;
• the first special training aircraft;
• first production aircraft;
• the first monocoque aircraft;
• the first aerobatic aircraft;
• etc.

But the real breakthrough came in 1913, when the designer created the world's first four-engine superplane. At first, the air giant C-9 was called "Grand" in the French manner. However, soon the plane was rechristened in a more patriotic name - "Russian Knight". It was from this machine, to call which the simple word "airplane" no longer raises a hand, that the entire world's heavy aviation went: cargo, passenger and military. In the same 1913, Ilya Muromets, an advanced version of the Vityaz, took off for the first time, conquering the whole world with its characteristics and breaking almost all world records.

A model of the Ilya Muromets aircraft, designed by Igor Sikorsky in 1914, is stored at the Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukovsky Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI). Photo: RIA Novosti / Oleg Lastochkin

Until 1917, Igor Sikorsky created many more models of aircraft - passenger, military bombers, fighters and reconnaissance aircraft, cargo, many of which were mass-produced. But after the workers, intoxicated by the revolution, actually stopped work at the RBVZ, Igor realized that in his homeland the prospects for aircraft construction in the near future were scanty, and therefore, he should look for a more suitable state for this. How did France first appear to him? By that time, Igor Ivanovich had already been married for a year, moreover, his daughter Tatyana was already growing up with him. However, her daughter was less than a year old and it was difficult to take her with her, and even through Murmansk - and there was no other way - it was difficult. Therefore, the wife and child have so far remained in St. Petersburg, albeit revolutionary, but native.

And rightly so, because Sikorsky did not succeed with France, despite the fact that he was invited to the country by the French government. After the end of the war, the need for the construction of large aircraft in the world fell sharply and the knowledge of the young designer was unclaimed. And not only in France, but throughout Europe. The only hope left was the United States.

And in 1919, Igor Sikorsky moved across the ocean. Where for four years he made a living teaching mathematics at night school. Only in 1923, together with several like-minded Russian emigrants, did he create the Sikorsky Aeroengineering Corporation in New York. The first assembly shop of the young company was the chicken coop of one of its co-founders, Russian military pilot and World War I hero Viktor Utgof. It was in it that in 1924 the first foreign apparatus of Sikorsky was assembled, one of the largest twin-engine biplanes S-29 in the world. The plane turned out to be quite successful, and the company received several rather profitable orders for it. The strengthened financial situation allowed Igor to transport his two sisters and daughter Tatyana to the USA. The wife refused to leave the USSR, and in the same 1924, Sikorsky married a second time, to Elizaveta Alekseevna Semenova.

However, things went from bad to worse for the company. Heavy aviation was not a promising industry then, and Sikorsky tried to switch to light aircraft. The money for their construction was collected by the entire emigrant world. Even the great Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov, who was vice-president of the company for some time, transferred $5,000 to its account (according to the modern account, about $80,000). However, the light aircraft market in the USA was already crowded, it was difficult to gain a foothold in it, and in the late 1920s Sikorsky decided to build something grandiose again. The giant S-35 was intended for transatlantic flights, but the first car, to the delight of competitors, crashed under rather strange circumstances and few orders were received for it. The extremely popular twin-engine ten-seat amphibian S-38, about which the newspapers wrote that it “made a revolution in aviation”, and that it can be splashed down where “where only hunter boats and Indian pies used to be” helped to help the company get out of the crisis.

Sikorsky-Flugzeug S-35, 1926. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Sikorsky devoted almost the entire fourth decade of the 20th century to the construction of amphibians. By that time, the company had merged with the powerful United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, later renamed United Technologies, which helped it survive the Great Depression. The last successful amphibian of the designer was the four-engine "flying boat" S-44, created in 1937. But the demand for seaplanes was no longer so great, and the designer made a strategically correct decision to transfer the company to a completely new product.

However, for Sikorsky himself, helicopters, as we already remember, were not such a new thing. For his experimental apparatus S-46, he chose the same scheme as his second, successful helicopter - with one main and one tail tail rotor. All over the world, at that time, such a scheme was considered unpromising, and helicopters were built exclusively coaxial, with two lifting screws rotating in opposite directions.

For the first time, a new Sikorsky product took to the air on September 14, 1939. And in 1942, an experimental two-seat S-47 took off into the sky, soon put into production. He also became the only helicopter that took part in the actions of World War II in 1944, when three of the designer's cars were included in the escort of the British transatlantic convoy. From now on, the shares of Sikorsky's company went up sharply.

Successes followed one after another. The S-51 became the recognized world rescue helicopter in 1946, the license for the production of which was soon bought by Great Britain. On the S-52, helicopter pilots performed aerobatics for the first time. Helicopter construction in France began with the purchase of a license for the S-55. A real triumph was the birth in 1953 of the multi-purpose S-56 Mojave, which in all respects surpassed everything that at that time existed in the helicopter industry. On this heavy machine, world records were set both in terms of carrying capacity (14.5 tons) and speed (209 km / h).

1950s, Igor Sikorsky. Photo: RIA Novosti / SDASM Archives

By 1955, Sikorsky's world authority in matters of helicopter construction had become truly undeniable. The main production was moved from Bridgeport to Stratford. And in 1958, 69-year-old Igor Sikorsky retired, leaving behind the position of a company consultant. His latest work was the S-58, recognized as one of the finest helicopters in aviation history.

The machines created in his company continued to break records one after another. In 1967, the S-61 first flew across the Atlantic, and in 1970 the S-65 conquered the Pacific Ocean.

The flight altitude of Sikorsky's machines exceeded 5000 meters. And his thoughts climbed much higher. The grandson of a priest, he was always distinguished by the most sincere and ardent faith in God. At his enterprises, even during periods of crisis, a small Orthodox parish with a priest always worked. One of them, Father Stepan Antonyuk, later became Bishop Joasaph of Western Canada. Igor Sikorsky himself, having retired, plunged headlong into theology and wrote several fairly solid and authoritative works: “Invisible Meeting”, “Evolution of the Soul”, “In Search of Higher Realities”, “Heaven and Heaven”, “Our Father meditating on the Lord's Prayer.

Igor Ivanovich loved to travel, adored volcanoes, in which he felt the almost limitless power of nature. Sometimes he just got behind the wheel and left the city wherever his eyes looked, away from the hectic human life. Having spent most of his life in exile, he never ceased to consider himself a Russian person, he was always proud of his Russian origin and helped less successful emigrants in any way he could. Although he never recognized the Soviet government and always argued that it cannot exist forever, and therefore “we need to work,” he wrote in emigre newspapers, and most importantly, learn what will help us restore the Motherland when it is from us will require."

Sikorsky's daughter Tatyana, the one who was brought to the US as a child, became a professor of sociology at the University of Bridgeport. The first son from his marriage to Elizaveta Semenova, Sergey, followed in his father's footsteps, and in his company reached the post of vice president. The rest of the children chose more earthly professions: Georgy became a mathematician, Nikolai a violinist, and Igor a lawyer.

Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky died in 1972. He was buried in the churchyard of St John the Baptist in Stratford. For 83 years of his life, he was awarded many well-deserved awards. But the highest was the inscription on the sides of the best and most powerful rotorcraft "Sikorsky". In the most direct sense. And, perhaps, it is no coincidence that the name of the designer, lifted by helicopters above the clouds, in the English version ends with "sky", which in English means "sky".

Sikorsky Igor Ivanovich

Sikorsky I.I. (1889-1972) - an outstanding pioneer in the design of multi-engine aircraft, which changed the course of the history of flight on devices with rigidly fixed wings, and later - a designer of helicopters with a single-rotor system that became widespread.

Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky was born on May 25, 1889, in Kyiv. He was the second son and fifth child in the family of Ivan and Zinaida Sikorsky. His father was a world-famous psychologist, had the title of professor and taught at Kiev University. He is the author of many works on psychology, which were published in many languages. Father raised Igor according to his own methodology and passed on to him devotion to the Church, Throne and Fatherland, helped to develop an unshakable will and unique perseverance
in achieving the goal. Mother was also a doctor, but did not work in her specialty. The boy had an early interest in models of aircraft, which may have been facilitated by his mother's enthusiasm for the art, life and work of Leonardo da Vinci. At the age of 12, Igor made a small "helicopter" with a rubber motor that flew up.
In 1903, Igor Sikorsky entered the St. Petersburg Naval School to become a career officer, but, driven by an interest in technology, he left the service in 1906. After a short technical training in Paris, Sikorsky returned to Kyiv and in 1907 entered the Polytechnic Institute. Sikorsky finished the academic year well, but decided that the abstract sciences and higher mathematics that he had to study there had little to do with practical problems and that it would be more useful and interesting to work in his own workshop and laboratory.
On a trip to Europe in the summer of 1908, Igor Sikorsky learned about the successful flights of the Wright brothers and met European inventors who were looking for their own paths in the field of flight. At that time, many believed that the most promising aircraft with a horizontal propeller, which would fly straight up. With the financial help of his sister, Sikorsky again went to Paris in January 1909 to continue his studies and purchase a light engine. Returning to Kyiv in May 1909, he began to build a "helicopter", as helicopters were then called. In 1908-1909. he consults with leading domestic and foreign experts, visits France and Germany, buys the engine and the necessary parts of the structure. And in July 1909, in the courtyard of his Kyiv house, a twenty-year-old student completed the assembly of the first helicopter in Russia, brought to the stage of full-scale tests. However, its lifting force was still insufficient. In the early spring of next year, Sikorsky is building a second helicopter in the same way. This rotorcraft was able to lift its own weight. At the same time, Sikorsky successfully experiments with snowmobiles of his own design. On them, as well as on helicopters, he learns to design and build propellers. By that time, Igor Sikorsky was already “literate” enough to understand that with the then level of technology, engines, materials, and even more so with a lack of funds and lack of experience, he could not create a successful helicopter. And he decided to take up airplanes with a rigidly fixed wing until better times.

In early 1910, Igor Sikorsky tested the first S-1 biplane. Engine power 15 l. with. turned out to be insufficient, but on a converted C-2 model with a more powerful engine, Sikorsky made his first flight, albeit a small one. More and more advanced C-3, C-4 and C-5 models quickly followed, each of which added to his flying experience. And so, in the summer of 1911, on the S-5 with a 50 hp engine. with. Igor Sikorsky managed to stay in the air for more than an hour, reach a height of 450 m and make short flights in a straight line. This success brought him international fame.
The half-educated student immediately received two very flattering offers from St. Petersburg: firstly, he was invited to the post of chief engineer of the naval aviation being established; secondly, to the position of designer of the newly formed aeronautical department of the joint-stock company "Russian-Baltic Wagon Plant" (RBVZ). He accepted both and moved with a group of closest collaborators from Kyiv to the capital of the empire.
Thanks to this combination of circumstances, Sikorsky managed to make a great contribution to the creation of a special kind of troops - aviation of the Russian Navy, and he can rightfully be considered one of its founders. However, after serving only a year, he retired from the naval service, giving himself entirely to work at the RBVZ. From the summer of 1912, he became both the chief designer and the manager at this plant. The outstanding organizer of domestic mechanical engineering, the chairman of the board of the RBVZ, M.V. Shidlovsky, had a great influence on the fate of Igor Ivanovich. He made a bet on a twenty-three-year-old student and was not mistaken. At RBVZ, one after another, new Sikorsky aircraft appear - biplanes and monoplanes - which arouse invariable admiration both among the general public and specialists and bring Russia fame as one of the leading aviation powers. The creation of each aircraft meant an important leap forward. During only 1912 and 1913. thanks to the talent and work of Sikorsky, the following appeared in Russia: the first seaplane; the first aircraft sold abroad; the first specially designed training aircraft; first production aircraft; the first monocoque aircraft; the first aerobatic aircraft, etc. Three aircraft designed by Sikorsky came out as winners at international competitions for military aircraft, proving in a bitter struggle their advantages over the latest foreign aircraft. The S-10 reconnaissance aircraft had a dozen and a half modifications, which by the beginning of the First World War formed the basis of the naval aviation of the Baltic Fleet. The maneuverable S-12 was also mass-produced and then successfully used at the front. At the same time, licensed production of some types of foreign aircraft was established at the plant. Thus, Sikorsky can rightly be counted among the founders of the domestic aviation industry.

Igor Sikorsky became a very wealthy man, but lost everything when he fled Russia during the revolution of 1917. In the conditions of general frustration after the Russian revolution and the defeat of Germany, he did not see any special opportunities for the further development of aviation in Europe and decided to start from scratch in America. In March 1919 he arrived in New York as an emigrant.

After years of struggling as a lecturer and schoolteacher, in an attempt to find his niche in the shrinking post-war aviation industry, Igor Sikorsky founded his own company, Sikorsky Aero Engineering, with several partners, including former Russian officers. They set up a workshop in an old barn on Long Island. In 1928 Sikorsky received US citizenship. By 1929, his company had become a division of the larger United Aircraft company, with Sikorsky himself as its design manager. Now she occupied a large modern factory building in Bridgeport, pc. Connecticut, and produced the S-38 twin-engine amphibian in significant numbers.
In 1931, Igor Sikorsky's first flying boat, the S-40 "American Clipper", opened the mail and passenger routes of the Pan American World Airways around the Caribbean Islands and to South America. By the summer of 1937, the Pan American began serving the transpacific and transatlantic routes with the first four-engine S-42 aircraft. This "Clipper III", the prototype of which was the "Grand" 1913, completed the series of Sikorsky's airplanes. Until 1939, Sikorsky created more than 15 types of aircraft.
By the end of the 1930s, the requirements for military and commercial air transport had changed in such a way that it heralded the end of large flying boats, and Igor Sikorsky returned to the idea of ​​a helicopter. The aerodynamic theory and technology that had been lacking in 1910 were now in place. In the early weeks of 1939, with a well-trained design team under him, Sikorsky began work on the single-rotor VS-300 helicopter.
On September 14, 1939, the device took off for the first flight, and its creator controlled it. Throughout his career, Igor Sikorsky has always insisted on making the first flight on each structure himself. On May 6, 1941, on the same, but improved machine, he will set a world record for flight duration - 1 hour 32.4 s. Sikorsky quickly improved the VS-300 in the XR-4 experimental machine. The US Department of the Army was so confident in its merits that in 1942 it immediately placed a large order for a new helicopter. By the end of World War II, more than 400 such aircraft had been built.
In 1937, the German designers G. Focke and A. Flettner, independently of each other, created flying and satisfactorily controlled helicopters with two large main rotors rotating in opposite directions, which ensured the balancing of the reaction moment. Igor Sikorsky, in 1939, was the first to use a simpler scheme with one main rotor and a small tail rotor in the VS-300, and today 90% of helicopters around the world are made according to this scheme. The first models of Igor Sikorsky were followed by a whole series (bearing his name) of others, of which the S-51, S-55, S-56, S-61, S-64 and S-65 were recognized as the most successful. Sikorsky was the first to build turbine helicopters, amphibious helicopters with retractable landing gear and "flying cranes". Sikorsky's helicopters were the first to fly across the Atlantic (S-61, 1967) and Pacific (S-65, 1970) oceans (with in-flight refueling).
Resuming work on the helicopter, Igor Sikorsky could hardly imagine the scale of the development of vertical take-off technology in the next 30 years. And he did not think about the widespread use of the helicopter in offensive military operations, which has been developed since the 1970s. He himself looked at the helicopter as a vehicle useful for industry and commerce, but primarily necessary for rescuing people and helping those caught in a natural disaster - fire, flood, etc. Igor Sikorsky estimated that 50,000 lives were saved by his helicopters.
Igor Sikorsky received many honorary doctorates, honorary memberships in scientific and technical societies in the USA and Europe. He was a laureate of the highest orders and medals, as well as aviation awards, including the Russian Cross of St. Vladimir, the Prize. Sylvanus Albert Reid for 1924 from the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences in New York, the medal to them. Daniel Gutgenheim for 1951, awards to them. Elmer Sperry for 1964, US National Defense Award for 1971, etc.
Igor Sikorsky retired as his company's engineering development manager in 1957, but remained a consultant until his death.
The active professional activity of Igor Sikorsky covered the entire history of the fulfillment of a man's dream of flying - from the first flights of the Wright brothers to flights into space. And Sikorsky played a "fateful" role on the most important paths of the formation and development of aviation, making a personal contribution to this development with an unusually wide range of innovative ideas.

What was he like, this outstanding aircraft designer? Of medium height, with a soft, even shy, manner of speaking and behavior, he possessed remarkable strength, moral and physical. He loved to travel, traveled all over America by car, visited many countries of the world. He was fond of mountaineering, conquered many peaks of America and Canada. Volcanoes were his special love - "a mighty and majestic phenomenon of nature", according to Sikorsky. He preferred solitude to human communication, driving away from the bustle of the city by car.
In 1917, Sikorsky married, but this marriage was short-lived. He had a daughter, Tatyana, a future professor of sociology at the University of Bridgeport. The second time Sikorsky married in 1924 to Elizaveta Alekseevna Semenova. Their first-born Sergey worked in his father's company, was its vice president. The remaining three sons chose other professions: Nikolai became a violinist, Igor - a lawyer, Georgy - a mathematician.
A deeply religious man, Sikorsky not only supported the Russian Orthodox Church in America financially, but was himself the author of several theological works. Remembering his plight in the first years of his stay in America, he provided material assistance to various emigrant organizations.
Sikorsky died on October 26, 1972 and was buried in the town of Easton, Connecticut. During his life, he was awarded many honorary titles and awards, but his main award is the gratitude of people who widely use the machines he created. And among these grateful people are the presidents of the United States, who, starting with Dwight Eisenhower, fly helicopters with the inscription "Sikorsky" on the board.

May 25, 1889, 120 years ago, in Kyiv, in the family of a doctor of medicine, professor at the University. St. Vladimir Ivan Sikorsky fifth child was born. At baptism, the baby received the name Igor, and grew up, one might say, in the most favorable environment. Firstly, the older children had already grown up, and their mother, Maria Stefanovna (nee Temryuk-Cherkasova), had enough time for the youngest, and, secondly, Igor himself was inquisitive and versatile. He was very fond of reading, playing music, he could evaluate the artist’s painting not only for the subject of the plot, but also was well versed in the composition ...

I must say that by the time Igor grew up, his father had more free time. If he completely entrusted the older children to the guardianship of his wife, then he decided to “sculpt” a genius from the younger one.

Suffice it to say that Ivan Alekseevich himself drew up a detailed program for the development of Igor and made sure that the youngest son did everything strictly. The only thing that the father watched carefully was that the boy did not experience overload.

Igor from the right with his brother and sisters

Mom did her best here. She had her own recipe - interesting books. When a person reads, he is mentally transported to another world, sometimes another era, leaving some negative emotions and nervous exhaustion in the present. A good book is always relaxing. What are the best books for boys? Those that tell about travel, romantic and heroic deeds. The home library had many volumes by Walter Scott, Robert Stevenson, Mine Reid, Jules Verne. Igor liked the latter very much. Especially the novel "Robur the Conqueror", which told about a giant airship. One day, Sikorsky Jr. had a dream: he was invited to this ship, entrusted with its management. This flight will turn out to be so unforgettable in terms of sensations, the dream was so vivid that Igor walked for several days under the impression of this unearthly journey ...

Isn't it then, in childhood, that his dream arose: to become a designer of aircraft? And even more: Igor Ivanovich did not trust anyone with his first flight on a designed and built aircraft. Any first, exemplary model, he tested only himself. Even becoming famous. And when friends reproached him for the fact that it was hardly worth risking his life, there are testers for this, Sikorsky invariably answered: who knows all the design features better than me? And then, there is such a tradition: the bridge builder is always the first to step on the built bridge. So why should pilots be different?!
Corps where the elite of society was trained

But that will be decades later. Dreams require one thing, and life, sometimes, quite another. Igor liked to study at the 1st gymnasium in Kyiv, but from the capital of the Russian Empire, St. Petersburg, his older brother wrote to him: come on to us, to the Naval Cadet Corps. You will be a midshipman, and then you will go to study further, to become a naval officer. Where, where, but in the Navy there is always enough romance.

This twist of fate was clearly out of the plan of Ivan Alekseevich, who really hoped that at least his youngest son would follow in his footsteps and become a professional psychiatrist. But the father did not resist Igor's desire either: after all, one can come to psychiatry not only from the main entrance. The main thing is to have such a goal.

... The Naval Cadet Corps was at that time one of the most elite educational institutions in the country, with a 170-year history. World-famous scientists taught here, and the selection itself was very tough, suffice it to say that the number of students was only 320 people, divided into 6 classes. That is, a little more than 50 people were accepted per year. The knowledge was vast. And it is no coincidence that the Naval Cadet Corps is proud of its graduates such as Admirals Ushakov, Lazarev, Kornilov, Istomin, Kolchak. The great explorers of the sea and the discoverers of new lands are Kruzenshtern, Lisyansky, the Chelyuskin brothers. And there are generally outstanding people about whom it is difficult to think that they received the “basics of the foundations” here: for example, the compiler of the Explanatory Dictionary Vladimir Dal, the composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the artist Vasily Vereshchagin, the writer Konstantin Stanyukovich, the aircraft designer Alexander Mozhaisky.

Igor Sikorsky was predicted to have a brilliant maritime career. But he had another dream - to design aircraft. And for this it was necessary to think about obtaining additional engineering education. Unfortunately, the time outside was not quite right for this: the year was 1906, the country was experiencing revolutionary moods, many educational institutions worked extremely inconsistently: today there are classes, and tomorrow, gentlemen, the students started some kind of mess and ignored the lectures. There was only one way left - to go where there was no smell of revolution. Ivan Alekseevich gave his son the following advice: go to Paris!

So Igor ended up at the Duvigno de Lano Technical School. But I studied there for about a year - compared to the Naval Cadet Corps, it was almost an elementary school. Sikorsky returned to Kyiv, became a student at the Polytechnic Institute. But even here he was not entirely interested: while yesterday's high school students were "nibbling on the granite of science", the future aircraft designer, together with two friends, converted the barn into a workshop and began to design and assemble biplanes.

He made the first of them in 1909, but no matter how hard he fought, this biplane never took off. We must pay tribute to the designer, he dismantled his "BiS-1", as they say, "by the bones", but found the reason. And even more - he managed to eliminate it in a short time.

"S-2" (that is, the second model) rose into the air. And Igor himself managed it. But the flight characteristics were not very high, and therefore the C-3, C-4 and C-5 appeared one after another.

On the latest model, Sikorsky even dared to take passengers. On it, he set all-Russian records for range, duration and flight altitude. The airplane rose to a height of 450 meters and stayed in the air for about an hour.

So at the age of just over 20 years, Igor Sikorsky became a celebrity.

And then he took up the multi-engine aircraft. He called him "Russian Knight". He already had four engines. The rumor about the air giant rolled across Russia. Emperor Nicholas II expressed a desire to inspect it. The plane was transferred to Krasnoye Selo, where the tsar boarded.

Soon Sikorsky was given a memorable gift from him - a gold watch.

Later, a new aircraft was created on its basis - the Ilya Muromets, which was used during the First World War as a heavy bomber and for reconnaissance flights.

The aircraft designer met the Great October Socialist Revolution without much joy, but without chagrin either. He considered that those people who yesterday spoke with enthusiasm about his flights and planes would hardly prevent him from continuing his work. But he turned out to be right in only one thing: one of the admirers of his talent, who served in the Cheka, somehow came to his idol’s house late at night and said: “I saw your name on the“ execution lists ”. They will come to pick you up either tomorrow morning or tomorrow evening.” “Have mercy,” Sikorsky did not believe, “all of Russia, all of Europe knows me! They won't dare to shoot me!" “Have you forgotten that not only all of Russia knows you, but also the usurper tsar? It was he who handed you a gold watch ... "

Sikorsky silently put his head in his hands. He did not want to joke with the Bolsheviks. But how to leave your beloved wife and tiny daughter? I didn’t really want to risk the health and life of the baby ...

“If you are worried about the fate of the family - in vain. They won't be touched. They are not to blame for anything,” continued the night visitor. “And I would advise you to run immediately.” But better not to the royal satraps, their days are numbered. Try to wait out the dashing years abroad ... "
So Sikorsky did. At first, according to old memory, he ended up in France, but the Parisians had no time for aircraft, the peace agreement had just been signed in the Compiègne Forest. It remained to hope for the least affected by the war "overseas country - America. Sikorsky went there. But there was no work in New York either, for four years the aircraft designer had to teach at an evening school.
He always dreamed of returning to Russia...

But somehow life got better. With his like-minded people, Igor Ivanovich created an aircraft manufacturing company, two sisters and a daughter came from the USSR (his wife flatly refused to leave Kyiv). Sikorsky married a second time, his new wife Elizaveta Alekseevna Semenova, one after another, gave birth to her husband four sons: Sergei, Nikolai, Igor and George.

Nikolai Sikorsky, Igor Sikorsky Sr., Sergei Sikorsky and Igor Sikorsky Jr. Photo by Igor I. Sikorsky (Historical Archives, Inc)

The genius, having found family and creative happiness, continued to create, creating more and more new aircraft.

Having fled from the Bolsheviks in 1919 across the ocean, Sikorsky, through the thorns of skepticism and fierce competition, fantastically quickly made his way to America's most technological Olympus. He began to manufacture amphibians, "flying boats", the firstborn of passenger aviation. And despite the unbelief of his colleagues, in 1939 he took off the VS-300 helicopter, the first of the famous Sikorsky helicopters, returning - on a different level, of course - to the implementation of his daring youthful experiments.

It's a paradox, but both in America and in Europe, Igor Sikorsky is known only as the designer of the first helicopters. And for some reason they forget that, while still living in Russia, it was he who was the first in the world to build four-engine aircraft, and when he moved to America, he designed amphibians. Sikorsky today is a world famous brand.
The work of the great balloonist, who always considered himself a son of Russia, is continued by his sons.

Sergei Sikorsky:
“For fifty years we have been producing special modifications of our helicopters for the White House. It began, by the way, with President Eisenhower. He even once gave a ride to Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev when he flew to America. The Soviet leader did not agree to fly very willingly, apparently, he did not believe in the complete safety of the machine. Two types of Sikorsky helicopters are now in service in the presidential air fleet - S-61 and S-70, the latter is a special civilian version of the Black Hawk combat vehicle. This helicopter proved to be excellent during combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

It remains to add two facts. First - Igor Ivanovich always loved Russia, loved the Russian people. He dreamed of living to see the day when it would be safe for him to go there. But he did not set this “date” for himself. And the second - the great aircraft designer died on October 26, 1972, at the age of 84.

Monument to I. Sikorsky in Kyiv