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 Kyiv Polytechnic Institute Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute The National Technical University of Ukraine "Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute" (NTUU "KPI") is a major university in Kiev, Ukraine. In January 2012 Webometrics Ranking KPI made it into top 1,000 – taking 957th place out of 20,300 universities, 510th (February 2013). The institute was founded on 31 August 1898 as the Kiev Polytechnic Institute of Emperor Alexander II, but its current building complex was not built until 1902. Until then, the institute was renting out its space at the building of Commercial School located on Vorovsky Street. At that time it had four departments: