Igor Sikorsky

Hello! My name is Igor Sikorsky. I want to tell you how I spent my life dreaming of flying. I was born in a beautiful city called Kyiv, in the Russian Empire, on May 25th, 1889. When I was a boy, my mother told me wonderful stories about a great artist and inventor named Leonardo da Vinci. He had drawn pictures of a machine that could fly straight up into the air. That idea fascinated me! Around 1901, when I was just 12, I built a small toy helicopter powered by a rubber band. It actually flew! That little toy sparked a dream that I would chase for the rest of my life.

When I grew up, I decided to build a real helicopter. In 1909, I traveled to Paris, France, to see the amazing new airplanes people were building. I came home and built my first helicopter, the S-1, and then another one called the S-2 in 1910. They had big spinning blades, but when I started their engines, they just shook and trembled. They couldn't even lift themselves off the ground! I was disappointed, but I didn't give up. I realized I needed to learn more about flying, so I decided to build airplanes first.

Building airplanes turned out to be a great idea. By 1911, I had built a plane, the S-5, that flew beautifully. Soon after, I designed a huge airplane called the 'Russky Vityaz,' which means 'Russian Knight.' In 1913, it became the world's first airplane with four engines! It even had a balcony for passengers. But my life changed when the Russian Revolution began. It was no longer safe for me, so in 1919, I moved all the way to America to start a new life.

Starting over was hard. I didn't have much money, but I still had my big dreams. In 1923, I started my own company, the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation, on an old chicken farm in New York. A famous music composer from Russia, Sergei Rachmaninoff, believed in me and gave me money to help me get started. My company became famous for building 'flying boats'—giant airplanes that could land on water. Our S-42 'Clipper' planes began flying passengers across the oceans in the 1930s.

Even with all my success with airplanes, I never forgot about my first dream: the helicopter. I went back to my old drawings and started working again. This time, I knew so much more about flying. On May 13th, 1940, my new helicopter, the VS-300, lifted off the ground with me at the controls! It could go straight up, hover in one spot, and fly backward. It was the first truly practical helicopter in the world. My dream had finally come true!

My helicopter design, the R-4, became the first one to be mass-produced in 1942. During wars and disasters, it was used to rescue people from places airplanes couldn't go. I lived to be 83 years old, and I got to see my invention change the world. Today, helicopters are used every day as air ambulances, for fighting fires, and for helping people in need. I am so proud that my childhood dream of a machine that could fly straight up has gone on to save so many lives.