Igor Sikorsky
Igor Silkorsky research papers can be ordered from Paper Masters to focus on any aspect of this inventor's life. His role in the Russian political realm or his development of the helicopter can be explicated in a paper for a world history project. Possible topics on Igor Sikorsky may include the following historical overviews:
- A biography of Sikorsky
- A look at his first helicopter - the Vough-Sikorsky VS-300
- Russian aeronautics
Igor Sikorsky (1889-1972) was a Russian-American aviation pioneer best known for creating the world's first successful mass-produced helicopter. Sikorsky was born in Kiev, but immigrated to the United States in 1919. In 1923, he founded the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, where he developed the S-42 flying boat, a fixed-winged seaplane, used by Pan Am in the 1930s to extend commercial air travel globally.
Silkorsky's Early Years
Sikorsky studied aeronautics at the Ecole des Techniques Aeronautiques et de Construction Automobile in Paris, returning to his native Russia in 1909 to test his first helicopter. In 1912, he became the Chief Engineer at the Russian Baltic Railroad Car Works in St. Petersburg, where he designed the first four-engine bomber during World War I. Disenchanted with the Bolsheviks, Sikorsky moved to the United States, where he produced the S-29, one of the first American twin-engine aircraft.
By 1939, Sikorsky had finally designed a working helicopter, the Vought-Sikorsky VS-300. Powered by a 75 horsepower engine, this three-bladed rotor helicopter was quickly updated to the R-4, the world's first mass produced helicopter. The rotor configuration created for the VS-300 is still used in helicopters to this day. Sikorsky died in 1972 at his home in Connecticut. The Sikorsky Prize, established in 1980 for human-powered helicopters, was finally awarded in 2013.