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-19 Sikorsky S-19 The Sikorsky S-19 was a Russian twin engine experimental prototype aircraft built late in 1916 by the Russian Baltic Railroad Car Works while Igor Sikorsky was chief engineer of the aircraft manufacturing division. The S-19 was a two bay sesquiplane powered by two Sunbeam Crusader water-cooled V-8 engines installed in push-pull configuration. Arranged as a twin-boom aircraft, it had a large rudder located in the center of the empenage. Two crewmembers occupied cockpits in the foreword most section of the booms in front of the lower wing and served as pilot and machine gunner. Flight testing revealed sluggish