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-8 fabric covering between the wing root and first rib. On the evening of 17 September 1912, Sikorsky piloted the S-8 on a ninety minute night flight from the Korpusnoi Aerodrome near Saint Petersburg. He landed with help of fires set at the airfield. Sikorsky S-8 The Sikorsky S-8 "Malyutka" (baby) was a small Russian single engine aircraft built by the Russian Baltic Railroad Car Works shortly after Igor Sikorsky became chief engineer of the aircraft manufacturing division in 1912. The S-8 was a two bay biplane trainer powered by a Gnome air-cooled rotary engine with the main wings and landing