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,
Igor Sikorsky designed the first heavy bomber for Russia. In 2013, "Flying" magazine ranked Sikorsky number 12 on its list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation. On March 22, 2018 the Kiev city council officially renamed Kiev airport "International Airport "Kyiv" (Zhulyany) named after Igor Sikorsky". Sikorsky was a deeply religious Russian Orthodox Christian and authored two religious and philosophical books ("The Message of the Lord's Prayer" and "The Invisible Encounter"). Summarizing his beliefs, in the latter he wrote: Igor Sikorsky Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky (, "Ígor' Ivánovič Sikórskij"; May 25, 1889 – October 26, 1972), was a Russian-American aviation pioneer in both