Ivan Sikorsky Research Paper

In our short time of learning to fly, we as the human race have progressed significantly from just observing the birds. We have progressed from being suspended from a balloon, to gliding, and finally flying a heavier than air craft. In just over nine years the renowned Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky not only designed, but built and flew a four engine aircraft from the time the Wilbur and Orville flew the Write Flier. Ivan Sikorsky was responsible for the development of the modern day helicopter, multi-engine aircraft and rigid hulled boat plane. The more we read into history his trials and attempts at flying were not always successful, nor was his way of life in the beginning easy by any means. With determination and a desire to learn from his misfortunes,

This accomplishment led to his earning the order of St. Vladamir. After World War one was over and living in war torn Europe, he decided to immigrate to the United States arriving in New York March 30, 1919. In the beginning of his American existence he worked as a school teacher and a lecture to facilitate looking for employment in the aviation industry. Four years later he was able to form a manufacturing company “Sikorsky Manufacturing Company in Roosevelt, New York. He got a lot of monetary backing from several former Russian military officers. His chief supporter was a composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, who introduced himself by writing a sizeable check of then $5,000. As a great salesman he was able to get another $2,500 after his first prototype crashed from the bankers. With this boost in startup capital he was able to produce the S-29. This was one of the first twin engine airplanes in the United States. It had a seating capacity of 14 and a top speed of 115 miles per hour. Igor got divorced from Olga Fyodorovna Simkovitch, he then left before the October revolution. His sisters then arrived in 1923, from Russia with his eldest and only daughter Tania. She was born in 1918 in Kiev Ukrainian Peoples republic, which eventually became part of the Soviet Union. Sergei Sikorsky is the eldest son who served in the United States Coast guard, earned a degree from the University of

This caused controversy due to the thought that Igor laid the foundation for the U.S. instead of The Soviet Union to further their aviation abilities. Sikorsky was also deeply religious. He was a Russian Orthodox Christian and authored two religious and philosophical books, The Message of the Lord's Prayer and The Invisible Encounter. Both of these books summarized his beliefs. He later 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.”(Wikipedia) It was Mr. Sikorsky's abiding faith in God and his strong belief in the importance of the individual that helped him overcome the frustrations and failures that marked his career. Mr. Sikorsky liked to say that "the work of the individual still remains the spark which moves mankind ahead," and he proved it throughout his life. Even after his retirement in 1957 Mr. Sikorsky continued to work as an engineering consultant for Sikorsky and he was at his desk the day before he died, on October 26, 1972, at the age of 83(