Igor Sikorsky On June 27, 1931, Sikorsky filed for a patent for another "direct lift aircraft", and was awarded patent No. 1,994,488 on March 19, 1935. His design plans eventually culminated in the first (tethered) flight of the Vought-Sikorsky VS-300 on September 14, 1939, with the first free flight occurring eight months later on May 24, 1940. Sikorsky's success with the VS-300 led to the R-4, which became the world's first mass-produced helicopter, in 1942. Sikorsky's final VS-300 rotor configuration, comprising a single main rotor and a single antitorque tail rotor, has proven to be one of the most popular helicopter configurations,
Sikorsky S-7 Sikorsky S-7 The Sikorsky S-7 was a Russian single engine experimental prototype aircraft built by the Russian Baltic Railroad Car Works shortly after Igor Sikorsky became chief engineer of the aircraft manufacturing division. The S-7 was two place wire-braced monoplane powered by a Gnome air-cooled rotary engine. Construction began in early summer of 1912 and completed in July. The pilot sat in the rear cockpit with a passenger seated in a forward compartment in a tandem arrangement. The fuselage was enclosed in plywood and the aircraft used components taken from the S-6A including the main wing, tail and landing gear.