Igor Sikorsky Jr., the son of the famed inventor and entrepreneur, talks about his father's early years during an event at the Danbury Mens Club Wed., Nov. 12, 2014.
Photo: Carol Kaliff
A young man at the time in Russia, Sikorsky, an entrepreneur and aviation pioneer, quickly set about building his own flying machines. His son, Igor Sikorsky Jr., talked recently about his father's early years during a meeting of the Danbury Men's Club.
While Sikorsky is most well known for flying the first helicopter, the VS-300, in 1939, the inventor already had a long history developing fixed wing aircraft.
"In those days the designers were also the test pilots," Igor Sikorsky Jr. said recently before more than 150 members of the men's club, which meets monthly at Hatters Park. "This eliminated a lot of bad designers."
After several failed attempts at creating a helicopter that could fly in 1909, Sikorsky turned to fixed wing aircraft after realizing, his son said, that helicopters would require, "an extravagance of power," to get off the ground.
By 1913, Sikorsky had designed and built the first successful airplane to have four engines, the S-21. Later versions of the plane were used for both passenger services and were retooled as bombers used by the Russian military during World War I.
It wasn't until after Sikorsky emigrated to the United States during the Russian Revolution that his commercial enterprises became even more successful.
By 1929, Sikorsky said, his father had focused on amphibious aircraft that could land on water. Given that there were very few airports in the country at the time, amphibious aircraft increased the popularity of passenger flight.
"It was one of the most successful enterprises for Sikorsky Aircraft," Sikorsky said.
It wasn't until 1938, when contracts for amphibious planes dried up, that Sikorsky again considered the possibility of vertical flight and began work on the VS-300. Despite the successful enterprise that the company became, Sikorsky himself, his son said, was no businessman. The aviation pioneer was thrilled, Sikorsky said, when United Aircraft took over Sikorsky's operation. In 1975, United Aircraft became United Technologies Corp.
"Business certainly wasn't his strength and he wasn't ashamed of that," Sikorsky said. "He was so delighted when United Aircraft came into the picture. It gave him the opportunity to get out of the office and into the lab, designing and testing aircraft. That's what he really wanted to do."
Story and Photo Gallery: http://www.newstimes.com
No comments:
Post a Comment