Some data on the invention of the airplane and the new airplane industry
Notes on Sikorsky from SY: In 1899 at the age of 10, built a spring-driven model of a helicopter. In 1909, his sister Olga Sikorsky funded his purchase
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- Smithsonian Institution Press, 1987.
Notes on Sikorsky from SY: In 1899 at the age of 10, built a spring-driven model of a helicopter. In 1909, his sister Olga Sikorsky funded his purchasein France of an Anzani 25-horsepower engine, the same engine used by Bleriot in his epic flight across the English channel in July of thatyear. Imperial Grand Duke Alexander in 1910 encouraged founding of Imperial All-Russian Aero Club (which lasted until 1917). In 1911Sikorsky earned pilot's license No. 64. In 1910, after two unsuccessful attempts to build a helicopter, Sikorsky launched his "S" seriesof monoplanes and biplanes. The S-1 with modest 15-hp engine, did not fly but served as test bed for perfecting control during high-speedground runs. Breakthrough camein the spring 1911 with the flyable S-5, powered by Argus 50-hp engine. He made short cross-country flights at altitudes of up to 1500 feet.In 1912 moved to St. Petersburg to head new aviation factory of Russo-Baltic Wagon Company.pring-driven model of a helicopter.Between early May 1909 and mid-December 1910, Sikorsky constructed a helicopter with the 25-h.p. engine that failed to fly;two air-driven sleighs that glided on snow; a helicopterpowered with a new 25-h.p. Anzani engine that lifted but could not carry the weight of an operator; the S-1 pusher biplanethat lifted but whose 15 h.p. Anzani motor did not provide enough power for it to fly; the S-2 pusher biplane powered by thesecond 25 h.p. Anzani motor, which made several flights of under 60 seconds each, but eventually was destroyed in a crash landing;and the S-3, powered by a 40-h.p. Anzani engine, whose career consisted of 13 flights and about seven minutes of air time in a littleover a week before being damaged in a hard landing. In April 1911, tests began on both the S-4, which was an improvement on the S-3,and the S-5, which had a 50-h.p. water-cooled Argus motor, a larger wing area, and different control arrangements. On 17 May 1911,Sikorsky flew the S-5 for about four minutes on a pre-determined course, returning close to the point of departure, and by mid-summerhe was able to stay in the air for a half hour at 1,000 feet of altitutde. He then went on to build the S-6 that, disassembled andrebuilt, became the S-6-A, which by early 1912, at a speed of 113 km. per hour (about 70 miles per hour), had exceeded the world recordof speed for a plane with a pilot and two passengers. In February1912, the S-6-A received the highest award in the Moscow aircraft exhibition. Meanwhile, in the fall of 1911, he earned F.A.I. pilotlicense No. 64 from the Imperial All-Russian Aero Club, which had been founded in 1910 by The Imperial Grand Duke Alexander. (Note:the Aero Club lasted until 1917). In the spring of 1912, Sikorsky sold his design rights on the S-6-A and all other designs andinventions in aviation that he had or would have in the next five years to come to the Russian-Baltic Railroad Car Factory andaccepted a position with them as designer and chief engineer of an aircraft subsidiary that he would establish in St. Petersburg.Additional Note 1: While known later in the United States as a builder of helicopters, Sikorsky built no helicopters in the periodbetween 1910 and 1939, when his U.S. factory produced its first helicopter. Additional Note 2: IS10. Before the 1917 Revolution,Russia followed the Julian calendar, which in the 20th Century, was 13 days behind the Gregorian or Western calendar. Dates in IShave been converted to the Gregorian calendar. It would appear from one instance in 1913 when a date in WS was 13 days earlier thana date in IS, that for exact dates above, WS used Gregorian dates.Codes for sources specific to Sikorsky:[[IS]] = K.N. Finne, ''IgorSikorsky,the Russian Years;'' translated and adapted by Von Hardesty; Carl J. Bobrow and Von Hardesty, eds., Washington, D.C.:Smithsonian Institution Press, 1987.[[WS]] = Igor I. Sikorsky, ''The Story of the Winged-S,'' New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1967 ed.Appendix D. Patents before 1907The German patents are from http://www.lilienthal-museum.de/olma/pat_ar.htm. Wow!! Thank you! I took the ones up to 1907. Some may not be relevant but are by relevant inventors. British patents can be entered from Aeronautics: an abridgement of aeronautical specifications filed at the Patent Office from A.D. 1815 to A.D. 1891 by Griffith Brewer and Patrick Y. Alexander, London, 1893, which was reprinted by Boekhandel en Antiquariaat, B. M. Israel, N.V., 1965. Table C.1 German patents
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