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-12 Sikorsky S-12 The Sikorsky S-12 was a Russian single engine trainer aircraft completed in the spring of 1913 by the Russian Baltic Railroad Car Works while Igor Sikorsky was the chief engineer of the aircraft manufacturing division. The S-12 was a single seat mid-wing monoplane with wire-braced wings and powered by a Gnome Lambda air-cooled rotary engine rated at . It was smaller and lighter than the S-11 on which it was based, and was specifically designed to be highly maneuverable. The S-12 was the most successful monoplane Sikorsky designed during his time in Russia and twelve examples were produced.