Igor Sikorsky (1889-1972), Russian-US aeronautical engineer. Sikorsky was born in Kiev, Russia, and educated at St Petersburg and Kiev. He emigrated to the USA in 1919 after building and flying the first four-engined aeroplane. In 1923 he founded the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Company and went on to construct a number of flying boats and, in 1939, the first successful helicopter, the VS300. The commercial version went into production in 1943 and was used exclusively by the US army during World War II.