Igor Sikorsky accompanied his father to Germany and through conversations with his father, became interested in natural sciences. After returning home, Sikorsky began to experiment with model flying machines, and by age 12, he had made a small rubber band-powered helicopter. Sikorsky began studying at the Saint Petersburg Maritime Cadet Corps, in 1903, at the age of 14. In 1906, he determined that his future lay in engineering, so he resigned from the academy, despite his satisfactory standing, and left the Russian Empire to study in Paris. He returned to the Russian Empire in 1907, enrolling at the Mechanical College of the
Igor Sikorsky designed the first heavy bomber for Russia. In 2013, "Flying" magazine ranked Sikorsky number 12 on its list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation. On March 22, 2018 the Kiev city council officially renamed Kiev airport "International Airport "Kyiv" (Zhulyany) named after Igor Sikorsky". Sikorsky was a deeply religious Russian Orthodox Christian and authored two religious and philosophical books ("The Message of the Lord's Prayer" and "The Invisible Encounter"). Summarizing his beliefs, in the latter he wrote: Igor Sikorsky Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky (, "Ígor' Ivánovič Sikórskij"; May 25, 1889 – October 26, 1972), was a Russian-American aviation pioneer in both