Robert J. McBride Senior, also known as Bob, was an aviation enthusiast and experimental flight mechanic who worked for the Chance Vought Company in Stratford, Connecticut building Corsairs in the late 1930s and early 1940s. When Vought-Sikorsky Aircraft was founded, Bob was there to work with Igor Sikorsky in the development of the Sikorsky R-4. The R-4 was the first stable, single-rotor, fully controllable helicopter and it entered into large full-scale production in 1942. Bob was honored to be on the United Technologies Corporation (UTC) Sikorsky Aircraft Division team that disassembled, transported and reassembled an XR-4C into the Washington, D.C. location of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. Bob returned to the Smithsonian in 1978 to view the helicopter on full display and was quite proud and emotionally moved.
Bob saw many changes at Sikorsky Aircraft and the evolution of the helicopter during his 35-year career. As an experimental flight mechanic and crew chief, Bob assembled, tested and maintained, as well as flew in, all types of Sikorsky flying machines, including the flying boat and the flying crane. Bob used his helicopter turbine engine expertise while participating on a special 1968 Sikorsky project building the first high speed Turbo Train in Seekonk, Massachusetts. Bob was well liked and had many nicknames, including "Orville," "Mac" and "Bobby-Mac." When Bob's co-workers saw Igor Sikorsky greet Bob by his first name, they nicknamed him "Orville" after one of the earliest inventors of successful flying machines, Orville Wright.