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
Sikorsky S-7 Sikorsky S-7 The Sikorsky S-7 was a Russian single engine experimental prototype aircraft built by the Russian Baltic Railroad Car Works shortly after Igor Sikorsky became chief engineer of the aircraft manufacturing division. The S-7 was two place wire-braced monoplane powered by a Gnome air-cooled rotary engine. Construction began in early summer of 1912 and completed in July. The pilot sat in the rear cockpit with a passenger seated in a forward compartment in a tandem arrangement. The fuselage was enclosed in plywood and the aircraft used components taken from the S-6A including the main wing, tail and landing gear.