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This collection consists of approximately 2.5 cubic feet of material gathered by former National Air and Space Museum (NASM) curator Von Hardesty and former NASM Museum Specialist Carl Bobrow as a set of reference files on the life and achievements of Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky. The collection contains many types of materials including correspondence, photography, writings by Sikorsky, news clippings, copies of official documents, motion picture film, and audio recordings.
Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky (1889--1972) was born in Kiev and graduated from the Naval War College in St. Petersburg. While in Russia, he experimented with rotary-wing craft and designed the first multi-engined fixed-wing aircraft, the S-21 Grand and Il'ya Muromets. He immigrated to the United States in 1919 and a few years later formed the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Company (later a subsidiary of United Aircraft and, eventually, United Technologies Corporation). The Sikorsky S-29-A and S-38 arrived to acclaim and use in air transport. In 1939, the Sikorsky VS-300, the world's first successful helicopter, was flown for the first time and by 1943, Sikorsky's company was producing the Sikorsky R-4, the world's first production helicopter. After many more years of achievement and a multitude of honors for his highly significant contributions to aviation, Igor Sikorsky died at the age of 83.
NASM.2022.0052
1889-1982
NASM Generated, transfer, 2022, NASM.2022.0052
2.5 Cubic feet (COLLECTION IS CURRENTLY UNPROCESSED)
National Air and Space Museum Archives
This collection consists of approximately 2.5 cubic feet of material gathered by former National Air and Space Museum (NASM) curator Von Hardesty and former NASM Museum Specialist Carl Bobrow as a set of reference files on the life and achievements of Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky. Much of the material seems to have been sent to Hardesty by Igor Sikorsky, Jr. The collection contains many types of materials including correspondence, photographic material, writings by Sikorsky, news clippings, copies of official documents such as Sikorsky's baptismal certificate, motion picture film, and audio recordings. Audio formats include metal and shellac on metal transcription discs, and two copies of Igor Sikorsky at the 20th Annual Wright Brothers Memorial Dinner (recorded December 14, 1967, reissued 1982) on vinyl LP disc.
The bulk of this collection is unprocessed and remains in the order in which it was received when the material was transferred to the Archives. The last series, Miscellaneous 35mm Film Cut Strips and Frames, has been rehoused, scanned, and described in this finding aid and the photographic materials placed in cold storage.
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
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Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky Reference Files, NASM.2022.0052, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Aeronautics
Collection descriptions
Archival materials