Learning Center Our Enshrinees

Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky

• Created the S-6A which received the highest possible award at the Moscow aircraft show.
• Developed aviation’s first four-engine plane in 1913.
• Converted the Ilia Mourometz into a bomber that became the backbone of the Russian aerial offensive against the Germans during World War I. Altogether, the planes participated in over 400 raids, but only one took damage from anti-aircraft fire.
• Immigrated to the United States during the Bolshevik Revolution and designed a twin-engine commercial airplane capable of carrying 12 to 15 passengers, the forerunner of the modern airliner.
• Built a twin-engine amphibian which Pan American Airways used to pioneer its new air routes to Central and South America.
• Designed and built flying boats called “Clippers” in 1931 for transoceanic air routes.
• Flew his design of a single-rotor helicopter in 1939 after he changed the angle of the lifting rotor blades as they revolve, enabling the craft to leave the ground. A few years later, he established the first helicopter endurance record of one hour, five minutes and 14 seconds.