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 Russky Vityaz Sikorsky Russky Vityaz The Sikorsky Russky Vityaz (), or Russian Knight, previously known as the Bolshoi Baltisky () "(The Great Baltic)" in its first four-engined version, was the first four-engine aircraft in the world, designed by Igor Sikorsky and built at the Russian Baltic Railroad Car Works ("Russo-Baltiiskyi Vagonnyi Zavod" or "R-BVZ") in Saint Petersburg in early 1913. Sikorsky conceived the S-21 design in 1911, when no known aircraft could lift more than . The carrying capacity record belonged to the French pilot Ducis, who had flown with a load of . On hearing about the construction of the "Russky