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Man's dream of
flying is an unfinished saga, carrying us now toward even greater
adventures in outer space. But wherever we may go, and whatever we
achieve through our efforts to push back the horizon of our
knowledge, Igor Sikorsky will remain a source of inspiration -- a
true man of vision.
Who was Igor Sikorsky and what did he invent?
Igor Sikorsky was a Russian immigrant born in Kiev in 1889. He
invented something that most of us will never fly in, yet his
company has been making the one that has transported every president
of the United States since 1957.
His full name was Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky, and he invented the
helicopter. With a name like that, I wonder if his mom ever used his
middle name when yelling at him, like "Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky, you
go to your room this minute. And don't try to make that
rubber-band-that-spins-when-you-wind-it-up contraption start flying
in the air." Which is exactly what he did at age 12.
By the time he was 19, Igor had figured out how to make a real
helicopter with two propellers fly a few feet off the ground.
The president of the United States travels in one of the Sikorsky
helicopters on flights that are less than 150 miles, and the
helicopter is called Marine One whenever the president is aboard.
Sikorsky helicopters have carried the past 10 U.S. presidents. If
you're keeping score at home, that would be Eisenhower, Kennedy,
Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton and Bush II.
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That's not the most interesting thing about this inventor,
though. The most interesting thing pertains to some of the people
who influenced Igor Sikorsky.
One was Jules Verne, who wrote the book, "Around the World in 80
Days." The other was the person whose design helped provide the
basis for Igor's helicopter.
You see, Igor Sikorsky wasn't the first person to design a
helicopter. He based part of his design from the work of an Italian
inventor who lived before him -- almost 450 years before him! His
name was Leonardo da Vinci.
Why didn't da Vinci bring the helicopter to life himself?
Because engines hadn't yet been invented when da Vinci was alive.
In addition to designing the original version of a helicopter, da
Vinci drew designs of an airplane, a submarine, a bicycle and a
parachute. He did not build working models of any of them, though.
Sikorsky's single-rotor design remains the most common helicopter
design used today. He also worked on other flight-related
inventions, including a "transoceanic flying boat." He died in 1972
at the age of 83, and today his company, Sikorsky Aircraft, is the
oldest aircraft manufacturer in the world.
[Paul Niemann]
Paul Niemann may be reached at
niemann7@aol.com.
Copyright Paul Niemann 2005
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