7 Igor Sikorsky 7and, although its 15-horsepower engine proved inadequate,
a redesigned airframe with a larger engine (S-2) carried
him on his first short flight. The S-3, S-4, and S-5 followed
in quick succession, each a refinement of its predecessor,
and each adding to his piloting experience. Finally, by the
summer of 1911, in an S-5 with a 50-horsepower engine, he
was able to remain in the air for more than an hour, attain
altitudes of 1,500 feet (450 metres), and make short cross-
country flights. This success earned him International
Pilot’s License Number 64.
The subsequent S- 6 series established Sikorsky as a
serious competitor for supplying aircraft to the Russian
Army. Characteristically, he soon took a giant step: the
first four-engined airplane, called “Le Grand,” the precursor
of many modern bombers and commercial transports,
which he built and flew successfully by 1913. Among its
innovative features, not adopted elsewhere until the
middle 1920s, was a completely enclosed cabin for pilots
and passengers.
In the period of disruption following the Russian
Revolution and the collapse of Germany, Sikorsky saw
little opportunity for further aircraft development in
Europe. He decided to start over again in the United States
and in March 1919 landed in New York as an immigrant.
Work in the United States
After several lean years as a lecturer and schoolteacher,
while trying to find a place for himself in the contracting
postwar aircraft industry, he and a few associates, some of
them former Russian officers, formed their own company,
the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation. They set up
shop in an old barn on a farm near Roosevelt Field on Long
Island. Sikorsky became a U.S. citizen in 1928. By 1929 the
company, having become a division of United Aircraft