Igor Sikorsky
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| Igor Sikorsky |
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
For the Ukrainian soccer
player of the same name in the Ukrainian language, see Ihor Sikorskyi.
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Igor
Sikorsky
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Studio
portrait, c. 1950
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Born
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Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky
May 25, 1889 |
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Died
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October 26, 1972
(aged 83)
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Nationality
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Russian-American
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Alma mater
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Kyiv
Polytechnic Institute
ETACA (now ESTACA [fr]) |
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Occupation
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Aircraft designer
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Known for
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First successful
mass-produced helicopter,
the Sikorsky R-4
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Spouse(s)
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Olga Fyodorovna
Simkovitch
Elisabeth Semion |
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Children
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5
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Awards
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Order of St.
Vladimir
Howard N. Potts Medal (1933) Daniel Guggenheim Medal (1951) ASME Medal (1963) Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy (1966) National Medal of Science (1967) John Fritz Medal (1968) |
Igor
Ivanovich Sikorsky (Russian: И́горь Ива́нович Сико́рский, IPA: [ˈiɡərʲ
ɪˈvanəvitʃ
sʲɪˈkorskʲɪj] (listen), tr. Ígor' Ivánovič Sikórskij; May 25, 1889 – October 26, 1972] was a Russian–American
aviation pioneer
in both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.
His first success came with the S-2, the second aircraft of his design
and construction. His fifth airplane, the S-5, won him national recognition as well
as F.A.I. license number 6 His S-6-A received the highest award at the
1912 Moscow Aviation Exhibition, and in the fall of that year the aircraft won
for its young designer, builder and pilot first prize in the military
competition at Saint Petersburg.]
After immigrating to the
United States in 1919, Sikorsky founded the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation in 1923] and developed the first of Pan American
Airways' ocean-crossing flying boats in the 1930s.
In 1939, Sikorsky designed and
flew the Vought-Sikorsky
VS-300,[8] the first viable American
helicopter, which pioneered the rotor configuration used by most helicopters
today.[9] Sikorsky modified the design
into the Sikorsky R-4,
which became the world's first mass-produced helicopter in 1942.
Contents
Early life
Igor Sikorsky was born in Kiev,
Russian Empire (now Ukraine)He was the youngest of five
children. His father, Ivan Alexeevich Sikorsky, was a professor of psychology of Saint Vladimir University
(now Taras
Shevchenko National University of Kyiv), a psychiatrist with an
international reputation, and an ardent Russian nationalist
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),] 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.
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 Kyiv
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.[19] Sikorsky later said about
this event: "Within twenty-four hours, I decided to change my life's work.
I would study aviation."[20]
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 Bolshevik revolution
began in 1917, Igor Sikorsky fled his homeland, because the new government
threatened to shoot him.[21] He moved to France where he
was offered a contract for the design of a new, more powerful Muromets-type
plane. However, in November 1918, the war ended and the French government
stopped subsidizing military orders, 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
Aircraft designer
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| Helicopter 1913 |
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.
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.
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.[26]
Sikorsky's first aircraft
of his own design, the S-1 used a 15 hp 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 25 hp 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.[27][28] 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.[29] 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.[30] 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.[29]
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)[31] in Saint Petersburg.[32] 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 as the Bolshoi Baltisky (The Great Baltic) when fitted with four
engines for the first time, each wing panel's pair of powerplants in a
"push-pull" tandem configuration previous to the four tractor-engined
Russki Vityaz.[33] He also served as the test pilot for its first flight on May
13, 1913.[33] In recognition for 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 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.[34] Seeing little opportunity
for himself as an aircraft designer in war-torn Europe, and particularly
Russia, ravaged by the October Revolution
and Civil War, he emigrated to the United States, arriving in New York on March
30, 1919.[35][36]
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-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
- S-28 proposed four-engined biplane bomber, cancelled due to the end of WWI, 1918
- S-29-A twin-engine biplane airliner, Sikorsky's first American design, 1924
- S-38 twin-engined eight-seat flying boat, 1928
- S-42 Clipper – flying boat, 1934
- S-43 scaled-down version of S-42, 1934
- VS-300 experimental prototype helicopter, 1939
- VS-44 flying boat, 1942
- R-4 world's first production helicopter, 1942
Life in the
United States
Igor Sikorsky on Time magazine cover, 1953
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.[37] He also lectured at the University of
Bridgeport.
In 1923, Sikorsky formed
the Sikorsky Manufacturing
Company in Roosevelt, New York.[38] He was helped by several
former Russian military officers. Among Sikorsky's chief supporters was
composer Sergei Rachmaninoff,
who introduced himself by writing a check for US$5,000 (approximately $61,000 in
2007).[39] Although his prototype was
damaged in its first test flight, Sikorsky persuaded his reluctant backers to
invest another $2,500. With the additional funds, he produced the S-29, one of the first twin-engine
aircraft in the US, with a capacity for 14 passengers and a speed of
115 mph.[40] The performance of the S-29,
slow compared to military aircraft of 1918, proved to be a "make or
break" moment for Sikorsky's funding.[citation needed]
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.[41] The company manufactured flying boats, such as the S-42 "Clipper", used by Pan Am
for transatlantic flights.[26]
Meanwhile, Sikorsky also
continued his earlier work on vertical flight while living in Nichols,
Connecticut. On February 14, 1929, he filed an application to
patent a "direct lift" amphibian aircraft which used compressed air
to power a direct lift "propeller" and two smaller propellers for
thrust.[42] 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.[43] 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. 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.[9]
Personal life
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 after the October Revolution.
In 1923, Sikorsky's sisters immigrated to the US, bringing six-year-old Tania
with them.[44] Sikorsky married Elisabeth
Semion (1903–1995) in 1924, in New York.[45] Sikorsky and Elisabeth had
four sons; Sergei, Nikolai, Igor Jr. and George.[46]
- Tania Sikorsky von York (March 1, 1918 – September 22, 2008), Sikorsky's eldest child and only daughter. Tania was born in Kiev. Educated in the US, she earned a B.A. at Barnard College and a doctorate at Yale University. She was one of the original faculty members of Sacred Heart University in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where she served as Professor of Sociology for 20 years.[47]
- Sergei Sikorsky (1925– ), Sikorsky's eldest son. He joined United Technologies in 1951, and retired in 1992, as Vice-President of Special Projects at Sikorsky Aircraft.[48][49]
- Igor Sikorsky Jr. is an attorney, businessman and aviation historian.[50] Igor Sikorsky III is also a pilot.[5
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.]
Legacy
The Sikorsky's family house
in Kiev's historical center, October 2009
In 1966, Sikorsky was
inducted into the International
Air & Space Hall of Fame
Sikorsky's and Andrei Tupolev's professional careers
were covered in the 1979 Soviet biopic The Poem of Wings (Russian: Поэма о крыльях) where Sikorsky was portrayed by Yury Yakovlev. A working model of Sikorsky Ilya
Muromets was recreated for filming
The Sikorsky
Memorial Bridge, which carries the Merritt Parkway across the Housatonic River next to the Sikorsky
corporate headquarters, is named for him. Sikorsky has been designated a
Connecticut Aviation Pioneer by the Connecticut State Legislature. The Sikorsky
Aircraft Corporation in Stratford, Connecticut, continues to the present day as
one of the world's leading helicopter manufacturers, and a nearby small airport
has been named Sikorsky
Memorial Airport
Sikorsky was inducted into
the National Inventors Hall of Fame and the Junior Achievement U.S. Business
Hall of Fame in 1987.
In October 2011, one of the
streets in Kiev was renamed after Sikorsky. The decision was made by the City
Council at the request of the U.S.
Embassy in Ukraine, which opened its new office on that street.[58]
The Sikorsky's family house in the city's historical center is preserved to
this day but is in a neglected condition pending restoration.
In November 2012, one of
the Russian supersonic heavy
strategic bomber
Tu-160, based at the Engels-2 Air Force Base, was named for
Igor Sikorsky, which caused controversy among air base crew members. One of the
officers said that Igor Sikorsky does not deserve it because he laid the
foundations of the U.S., rather than Russian aviation. However, the Long Range Aviation
command officer said that Igor Sikorsky is not responsible for the activities
of his military aircraft, noted that Sikorsky had also designed the first heavy bomber
for Russia.[59] In 2013, Flying magazine ranked Sikorsky
number 12 on its list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation
In August 2016, the National
technical university of Ukraine "Kyiv politechnical institute"
was named National Technical University of Ukraine "Igor Sikorsky Kyiv
Polytechnic Institute" its former student and outstanding aircraft
designer.[61]
On March 22, 2018 the Kiev City Council officially renamed Kiev
International Airport to "Igor Sikorsky Kyiv International
Airport Zhulia
Philosophical and 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.[65][66]
Published
works
- Sikorsky, Igor Ivan. The Message of the Lord's Prayer. New York: C. Scribner's sons, 1942. OCLC 2928920
- Sikorsky, Igor Ivan. The Invisible Encounter. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1947. OCLC 1446225
- Sikorsky, Igor Ivan. The Story of the Winged-S: Late Developments and Recent Photographs of the Helicopter, an Autobiography. New York: Dodd,
With
affection,
Ruben
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