Early Experiments

In the spring of 1909, Sikorsky built his first real helicopter. However, the machine would not fly. Another version failed to fly the following year, and Sikorsky decided to abandon the effort. As he later explained, “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.”

Sikorsky turned his attention to designing airplanes, producing several models and flying them himself. In 1911, he earned an international pilot’s license, becoming just the sixty-fourth person in the world to have one. That year, Sikorsky’s S-5 plane set records by carrying three people more than 30 miles (48 kilometers) at 70 miles per hour (about 113 kilometers per hour). Another of his planes won an award at an air show the next year and took first prize in a competition held by the Russian armed forces. This success earned Sikorsky a job with a Russian company, where he worked on manufac­turing airplanes.

In 1913, Sikorsky produced a new design he called the Grand. This large airplane was powered by four engines – the first flying machine to have more than one. It also was the first to have the pilot and passenger areas fully enclosed. The Russian army used several dozen aircraft of this design as bombers during World War I (1914-1918).

Russian participation in the war ended when communists took control of the nation’s government and pulled the country’s troops out of the conflict. Sikorsky left his homeland in 1919 and eventually reached the United States.