Helicopter : Innowiki

Igor Sikorsky was a Russian aircraft designer. He created various aircraft for the Russian army, including early helicopters. No sooner did the Bolshevick’s take over than Sikorsky fled to the US after the Russian Revolution in 1919.

In the US, he created a business, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, designing aircraft.

His first American airplane was a fixed-wing transatlantic “flying-boat” produced for Pan American Airways.

Afterwards, he turned his attention solely to helicopters. Sikorsky theorized a secondary propeller at the back enabled pilots to control the aircraft.

Sikorsky’s first helicopter, the VS-300, flew in 1939. Eventually, by 1942, his company was manufacturing and selling the first mass-produced helicopter, the Sikorsky R-4.

Up to this time Sikorsky Helicopter, today a division of Lockheed-Martin, remains a leading designer and manufacturer of helicopters.

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