The Art of the Possible

XCIII

Igor Sikorsky

A Sikorsky S-61L belonging to New York Airways, a shuttle line, in the 1960s

Igor Sikorsky (1889-1972) is most frequently associated with the invention of the helicopter, which he developed between 1939 and 1942. Helicopters saw some very limited use in the Pacific Theater of World War II, became more common during the Korean War (1950-1953), and evolved into attack craft during the Vietnam War. They are also used for diverse civilian reasons throughout the world. 

Sikorsky first became interested in aviation during a 1908 visit to Germany during which he saw Graf von Zeppelin’s airships and a handful of airplanes in the sky. He returned to Russia convinced to bring her into the air age. He was, however, almost killed in 1911, when a mosquito was sucked into the carburetor of his aircraft’s engine and the plane lost power and crashed. The experience convinced him that airplanes needed more than a single engine.

The Grand

In 1912 he created the first multiengine aircraft in the world, which he called the S-21 Russky Vityaz, or more commonly, Le Grand. He then upgraded Le Grand into a four-engine configuration, Bolshoi Baltisky or The Great Baltic. The Great Baltic’s engines were paired back-to-back on the upper wing, in dual tractor-pusher configuration. In 1914, he built the S-22 Ilya Muromets, the world’s first heavier-than-air airliner. 

The maiden flight of the Ilya Muromets

She was a giant for her time, at 58 feet of fuselage length and a 98 foot (top) and 69 foot (bottom) wingspan. She was 13 feet tall. She weighed 12,000 pounds fully loaded.  Her four engines provided her eight to ten hours of flying time.

Some people did not believe she would fly. Their theory, “The Ostrich Hypothesis” held that just as larger birds were flightless larger planes would necessarily be flightless too. Sikorsky proved them wrong.

The Ilya Muromets was meant to compete with DELAG’s passenger zeppelins. It had the world’s first insulated passenger saloon (outfitted with comfortable wicker chairs and tables), heating and electrical lighting on board. It had a private passenger cabin / bedroom with an attached lounge. Ilya Muromets also provided passengers with the world’s first airborne toilet facilities. 

The S-22’s cockpit had an observation deck where passengers could watch the pilots work without disturbing them. There were also mechanics’ service passages on the wings, allowing for repairs and adjustments in flight. 

On its first flight, Ilya Muromets carried sixteen passengers aloft, a record for a heavier-than-air-craft of the time. It also made a flight of some 800 miles (with stops) to St. Petersburg, where Sikorsky was acclaimed by Tsar Nicholas II with the Order of St. Vladimir. 

World War I began shortly after this accomplishment, and Sikorsky converted the Ilya Muromets into the Kievsky, the world’s first strategic heavy bomber.  As a bomber, the S-22 was outfitted with 12 machine guns and 1,200 pounds of bombs.  The Russians built 83 Kievskys. With their great size and heavy armament, the Central Powers air forces avoided engaging them. In the world’s first bomber squadrons they were used for day bombing, night bombing (another first), and photographic reconnaissance. 

A Kievsky, the military version of the Ilya Muromets, outfitted with skis for snow landings

With the coming of the Russian Revolution, Sikorsky, a staunch monarchist, fled Russia for the United States. Sikorsky immediately discovered that neither he nor his accomplishments were known in America, and, penniless, he eventually settled on New York’s Lower East Side among the large Russian-Jewish community there, although he himself was not Jewish. He supported himself (poorly) by tutoring immigrant children in math and science. Sikorsky was saved from obscurity by an old family friend, fellow emigre, composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, whose social connections provided him entrée back into aeronautics.  

The S-36 flying boat. Note the wheels. This was Pan American's first flying boat

In 1923, Sikorsky founded the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation in Roosevelt, New York. He built his first amphibian (land / water) aircraft, the S-34 in Roosevelt. It was quickly succeeded by the S-36. 

The S-36 was the first amphibian ever ordered by Pan American Airways. It arrived at Key West in December 1927. It was a six-passenger, two-crew dual engine monoplane, thirty four feet LOA with a wingspan of 62 feet. 

In 1928, Igor Sikorsky moved Sikorsky Aircraft’s operations to Stratford, Connecticut and used the Housatonic River for experiments. He spent the rest of his long life developing aircraft.   

 

A Sikorsky S-92 over the Sikorsky factory in Connecticut, circa 2000