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-11 Sikorsky S-11 The Sikorsky S-11 " Polukroogly " (Half Round) was a Russian single engine prototype reconnaissance aircraft completed in July 1913 by the Russian Baltic Railroad Car Works while Igor Sikorsky was the chief engineer of the aircraft manufacturing division. The S-11 was a two seat mid-wing monoplane with wire-braced wings powered by a Gnome Monosoupape air-cooled rotary engine rated at . It was smaller and lighter than the S-7 on which it was based, and had a conventional wooden fuselage. The cockpit featured side-by-side seating with controls for the pilot only on the left. Originally built with ailerons