Biography Blaise Pascal 

Quick Facts

NameBlaise Pascal

OccupationTheologian, Philosopher, Mathematician, Physicist, Scientist

Birth DateJune 19, 1623

Death DateAugust 19, 1662

Place of BirthClermont-Ferrand, France

Place of DeathParis, France

Full NameBlaise Pascal

synopsis Early Life Inventions and Discoveries Death Legacy

Cite This Page

Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist and religious philosopher, who laid the foundation for the modern theory of probabilities.

IN THESE GROUPS

Famous Christians Famous Geminis Famous People Born in Clermont-Ferrand Famous People Born in France

Synopsis

Mathematician Blaise Pascal was born on June 19, 1623, in Clermont-Ferrand, France. In 1642, he invented the Pascaline, an early calculator. Also in the 1640s, he validated Torricelli's theory concerning the cause of barometrical variations. In the 1650s, Pascal laid the foundation of probability theory and published the theological works Pénsees and Provinciales. Pascal died in Paris on August 19, 1662.

Early Life

Inventor, mathematician, physicist and theological writer Blaise Pascal, born on June 19, 1623 in Clermont-Ferrand, France, was the third of four children and only son to Etienne and Antoinette Pascal. His mother, Antoinette, passed away when he was just a toddler. He was exceptionally close to his two older sisters, Gilberte and Jacqueline. His father, Etienne, was a tax collector and a talented mathematician.

Etienne moved the family to Paris in 1631. There, he decided to educate Blaise—a child prodigy—himself so he could design his own unorthodox curriculum and make sure that Blaise didn't work too hard. Ironically, Etienne entirely omitted mathematics from Blaise’s early curriculum. Etienne was concerned that Blaise would become so fascinated with geometry that he wouldn’t be unable to focus on classical subjects.

The beginning of Blaise’s education in Paris was geared toward languages, especially Latin and Greek. Even so, Etienne's plan backfired: The fact that mathematics was a forbidden topic made the subject even more interesting to the inquisitive boy, who at the age of 12 began exploring geometry on his own. He even made up his own terminology, not having learned the official terms. The prodigy quickly managed to work out that the sum of a triangle's angles are equal to two right angles.

Etienne was impressed. In answer to Blaise's unswerving fascination, his father permitted him to read Euclid. Etienne also at last allowed Blaise to accompany him to meetings at the mathematics academy in Paris. It was there, at age 16, that Blaise presented a number of his early theorems, including his "mystical hexagon." Blaise could not have asked for a better audience; in attendance were some of the premier mathematical thinkers of the time, including Marin Mersenne, Pierre Gassendi and Clyde Mydorge, to name a few.

In 1640, the Pascal family drew up stakes once again. They moved to Rouen, France, where Blaise's father had been appointed to collect taxes. Within just a year of moving, Blaise

published his first written work, Essay on Conic Sections. The essay constituted an important leap forward in projective geometry, which involved transferring a 3-D object onto a 2-D field.

In 1646, Etienne was seriously injured in an accident that rendered him housebound. The accident created a shift in the whole family's religious beliefs. The Pascals had never fully embraced the local Jesuits' ideas. After Etienne's accident, a visit from a group of Jansenists led the family to convert to that belief system. During the year that Etienne convalesced, two Jansenist brothers watched over Blaise. As a result of their influence, Blaise became devoutly religious.

Inventions and Discoveries

A true trailblazer and a child prodigy to boot, Blaise Pascal started his prolific stream of groundbreaking inventions and discoveries when he was still just a teen.

In 1642, at age 18, inspired by the idea of making his father's job of calculating taxes easier, Pascal invented an early calculator, dubbed the Pascaline. (German polymath William Schickard had developed and manufactured an earlier version of the digital calculator in 1624.) The Pascaline was a numerical wheel calculator with eight movable dials, each representing a numerical digit, such as ones, tens and hundreds. It was capable of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.

Pascal's invention was not without its glitches: There was a discrepancy between the calculator's design and the structure of the French currency of the time. The machines went into production in 1642, but Pascal continued to work on improving his calculator until 1645. (Fifty prototypes had been produced by 1652, but the Pascaline was never a big seller. It went out of production less than a year later.)

In 1648, eight years after his first essay was published, Pascal starting writing more of his theorems on conic sections in The Generation of Conic Sections, but he pushed the work aside until 1654.

At the end of the 1640s, Pascal temporarily focused his experiments on the physical sciences. Following in Evangelista Torricelli’s footsteps, Pascal experimented with how atmospheric pressure could be estimated in terms of weight. By taking readings of the barometric pressure at various altitudes, Pascal validated Torricelli's theory concerning the cause of barometrical variations.

In the 1650s, Pascal set about trying to create a perpetual motion machine, the purpose of which was to produce more energy than it used. In the process, he stumbled upon an accidental invention. In 1655, Pascal's roulette machine was born. Aptly, he derived its name from the French word for "little wheel."

Overlapping his work on the roulette machine was Pascal's correspondence with mathematical theorist Pierre de Fermat, beginning in 1654. Through their letters discussing dice problems, and through Pascal's own experiments, Pascal discovered that there is a fixed likelihood of any

certain outcome when it comes to the roll of the dice. This discovery was the basis of the mathematical theory of probability, the eye-opening realization that events and their outcomes did not occur randomly.

Although the specific dates are uncertain, Pascal also reportedly invented a rather primitive form of the wristwatch. It was an informal invention to say the least: The mathematician was known to strap his pocket watch to his wrist with a piece of string, presumably for the sake of convenience while tinkering with his other inventions.

Death

Pascal struggled with insomnia and a painful digestive disorder called dyspepsia from the time he was a teen. Regarding his physical health, he was described as "a man of slight build with a loud voice and somewhat overbearing manner. … [H]e lived most of his adult life in great pain. He had always been in delicate health, suffering even in his youth from migraine." Over the years, Pascal’s constant work took a toll on his already fragile health.

Pascal died of a malignant stomach tumor at his sister Gilbrete's house in Paris on August 19, 1662. By then, the tumor had metastasized in his brain. He was 39 years old at the time of his death. His complex personality has been described as "precocious, stubbornly persevering, a perfectionist, pugnacious to the point of bullying ruthlessness yet seeking to be meek and humble."

Legacy

Pascal's inventions and discoveries have been instrumental to developments in the fields of geometry, physics and computer science. His exploration of binomial coefficients influenced Sir Isaac Newton, leading him to uncover his "general binomial theorem for fractional and negative powers."

In the 1970s, the Pascal (Pa) unit was named after Blaise Pascal, in honor of his contributions to the understanding of atmospheric pressure and how it could be estimated in terms of weight. The Pascal is a unit of pressure that constitutes the force of a single newton acting on a square-meter surface. It is measured using the meter-kilogram-second system, which relies on an extended version of the metric system to calculate pressure.

In 1972, computer scientist Nicklaus Wirth invented a computer language and insisted on naming it after Pascal. This was Wirth's way of memorializing Pascal's invention of the Pascaline, one of the earliest forms of the modern computer. Pascal is also credited with building the foundation of probability theory.

Blaise pascal

Harvard Style

Blaise Pascal. [Internet]. 2014. The Biography.com website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/blaise-pascal-9434176 [Accessed 21 Sep 2014].

MLA Style

"Blaise Pascal." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 21 Sep. 2014.

Christopel

Christopher Latham Sholes." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 21 Sep. 2014 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. - See more at: http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Christopher_Latham_Sholes.aspx#sthash.HNdaBGY5.dpuf

Igor

Igor Sikorsky." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Retrieved September 21, 2014 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404705959.html - See more at: http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Igor_Ivanovich_Sikorsky.aspx#sthash.qIL6qEhr.dpuf

Kartini

Igor Sikorsky." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Retrieved September 21, 2014 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404705959.html - See more at: http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Igor_Ivanovich_Sikorsky.aspx#sthash.qIL6qEhr.dpuf

Adam smith

Adam Smith. (2014). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 02:32, Sep 21, 2014, from http://www.biography.com/people/adam-smith-9486480.

Biography Christopher Latham Sholes

Christopher Latham Sholes

Christopher Latham Sholes

Born

February 14, 1819Mooresburg, Montour County, Pennsylvania, United States

Died February 17, 1890 (aged 71)

Resting placeForest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.A [1]

Nationality American

Christopher Latham Sholes (February 14, 1819 – February 17, 1890) was an American inventor who invented the first practical typewriter and the QWERTY keyboard still in use today. He was also a newspaper publisher and Wisconsin politician.

Contents

1 Youth and political career 2 The "Voree Record" 3 Inventing the typewriter 4 Notes 5 References 6 External links

Youth and political career

Born in Mooresburg, Pennsylvania, Sholes moved to nearby Danville, Pennsylvania and worked there as an apprentice to a printer. After completing his apprenticeship, Sholes moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1837, and later to Southport, Wisconsin (present-day Kenosha). He became a newspaper publisher and politician, serving in the Wisconsin State Senate from 1848-1849 as a Democrat, in the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1852-1853 as a Free Soiler, and again in the Senate as a Republican from 1856–1857.[4][5] He was instrumental in the successful movement to abolish capital punishment in Wisconsin: his newspaper, The Kenosha Telegraph, reported on the trial of John McCaffary in 1851, and then in 1853 he led the campaign in the Wisconsin State Assembly. He was the younger brother of Charles Sholes (1816–1867) who was also a newspaper publisher and politician who served in both houses of the Wisconsin State Legislature and as mayor of Kenosha.

The "Voree Record"

In 1845, Sholes was working as editor of the Southport Telegraph, a small newspaper in Kenosha, Wisconsin. During this time he heard about the alleged discovery of the Voree Record, a set of three minuscule brass plates unearthed by James J. Strang, a would-be successor to the murdered Latter Day Saint prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. [8] Strang asserted that this proved that he was a true prophet of God, and he invited the public to call upon him and see the plates for themselves. Sholes accordingly visited Strang, examined his "Voree Record," and wrote an article about their meeting. He indicated that while he could not accept Strang's plates or his prophetic claims, Strang himself seemed to be "honest and earnest" and his disciples were "among the most honest and intelligent men in the neighborhood." As for the "record" itself, Sholes indicated that he was "content to have no opinion about it."[9]

Inventing the typewriter

John Pratt's Pterotype, the inspiration for Sholes in July 1867.

Wisconsin Historical Marker

Typewriters had been invented as early as 1714 by Henry Mill and reinvented in various forms throughout the 1800s. It was to be Sholes, however, who invented the first one to be commercially successful.

Sholes had moved to Milwaukee and became the editor of a newspaper. Following a strike by compositors at his printing press, he tried building a machine for typesetting, but this was a failure and he quickly abandoned the idea. He arrived at the typewriter through a different route. His initial goal was to create a machine to number pages of a book, tickets, and so on. He began work on this at Kleinsteubers machine shop in Milwaukee, together with a fellow printer Samuel W. Soule, and they patented a numbering machine on November 13, 1866.[10]

Sholes and Soule showed their machine to Carlos Glidden, a lawyer and amateur inventor at the machine shop working on a mechanical plow, who wondered if the machine could not be made to produce letters and words as well. Further inspiration came in July 1867, when Sholes came across a short note in Scientific American [11] describing the "Pterotype", a prototype typewriter that had been invented by John Pratt. From the description, Sholes decided that the Pterotype was too complex and set out to make his own machine, whose name he got from the article: the typewriting machine, or typewriter.

For this project, Soule was again enlisted, and Glidden joined them as a third partner who provided the funds. The Scientific American article (unillustrated) had figuratively used the phrase "literary piano"; the first model that the trio built had a keyboard literally resembling a piano. It had black keys and white keys, laid out in two rows. It did not contain keys for the numerals 0 or 1 because the letters O and I were deemed sufficient:

3 5 7 9 N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 2 4 6 8 . A B C D E F G H I J K L M

The first row was made of ivory and the second of ebony, the rest of the framework was wooden. It was in this form that Sholes, Glidden and Soule were granted patents for their invention on June 23, 1868[12] and July 14.[13] The first document to be produced on a typewriter was a contract that Sholes had written, in his capacity as the Comptroller for the city of Milwaukee. Machines similar to Sholes's had been previously used by the blind for embossing, but by Sholes's time the inked ribbon had been invented, which made typewriting in its current form possible.[10]

At this stage, the Sholes-Glidden-Soule typewriter was only one among dozens of similar inventions. They wrote hundreds of letters on their machine to various people, one of whom was James Densmore of Meadville, Pennsylvania. Densmore foresaw that the typewriter would be highly profitable, and offered to buy a share of the patent, without even having laid eyes on the machine. The trio immediately sold him one-fourth of the patent in return for his paying all their expenses so far. When Densmore eventually examined the machine in March 1867, he declared that it was good for nothing in its current form, and urged them to start improving it. Discouraged, Soule and Glidden left the project, leaving Sholes and Densmore in sole possession of the patent.

Realizing that stenographers would be among the first and most important users of the machine, and therefore best in a position to judge its suitability, they sent experimental versions to a few stenographers. The most important of them was James O. Clephane, of Washington D.C., who tried the instruments as no one else had tried them, subjecting them to such unsparing tests that he destroyed them, one after another, as fast as they could be made and sent to him. His

judgments were similarly caustic, causing Sholes to lose his patience and temper. But Densmore insisted that this was exactly what they needed:

"This candid fault-finding is just what we need. We had better have it now than after we begin manufacturing. Where Clephane points out a weak lever or rod let us make it strong. Where a spacer or an inker works stiffly, let us make it work smoothly. Then, depend upon Clephane for all the praise we deserve."

Sholes typewriter, 1873. Buffalo History Museum.

Sholes took this advice and set to improve the machine at every iteration, until they were satisfied that Clephane had taught them everything he could. By this time, they had manufactured 50 machines or so, at an average cost of $250. They decided to have the machine examined by an expert mechanic, who directed them to E. Remington and Sons (which later became the Remington Arms Company), manufacturers of firearms, sewing machines, and farm tools. In early 1873 they approached Remington, who decided to buy the patent from them. Sholes sold his half for $12,000, while Densmore, still a stronger believer in the machine, insisted on a royalty, which would eventually fetch him $1.5 million.[10]

Sholes returned to Milwaukee and continued to work on new improvements for the typewriter throughout the 1870s, which included the QWERTY keyboard (1873).[15] James Densmore had suggested splitting up commonly used letter combinations in order to solve a jamming problem caused by the slow method of recovering from a keystroke: weights, not springs, returned all parts to the "rest" position. This concept was later refined by Sholes and the resulting QWERTY layout is still used today on both typewriters and English language computer keyboards, although the jamming problem no longer exists.

Sholes died on February 17, 1890 after battling tuberculosis for nine years, and is buried at Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee.

Biography Igor Sikorsky

Igor Sikorsky

Studio portrait, c. 1950

BornIgor Ivanovich SikorskyMay 25, 1889Kiev, Ukraine

DiedOctober 26, 1972 (aged 83)Easton, Connecticut, USA

Nationality Russian AmericanEthnicity Polish, Russian, Ukrainian

Alma materImperial Russian Naval AcademyKiev Polytechnic InstituteETACA

Occupation Aircraft designer

Known forFirst successful mass-produced helicopter

Religion Russian Orthodox

Spouse(s)Olga Fyodorovna SimkovitchElisabeth Semion

Children Tania, Sergei, Nikolai, Igor, George

Awards

Order of St. VladimirJohn Fritz Medal (1968)National Medal of Science (1967)ASME Medal (1963)Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy

Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky Ígor' Ivánovič Sikórskij; May 25, 1889 – October 26, 1972),[1][N 1] was a Russian American aviation pioneer in both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. He designed and flew the world's first multi-engine fixed-wing aircraft, the Russky Vityaz in 1913, and the first airliner, Ilya Muromets, in 1914.

After immigrating to the United States in 1919, Sikorsky founded the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation in 1923,[2] and developed the first of Pan American Airways' ocean-conquering flying boats in the 1930s.

In 1939 Sikorsky designed and flew the Vought-Sikorsky VS-300,[3] the first viable American helicopter, which pioneered the rotor configuration used by most helicopters today.[4] Sikorsky modified the design into the Sikorsky R-4, which became the world's first mass-produced helicopter in 1942.

Contents

1 Early life 2 Aircraft designer

o 2.1 List of aircraft designed by Sikorsky 3 Life in United States 4 Family 5 Death and legacy 6 Philosophical and religious views 7 Published works 8 See also 9 References

o 9.1 Notes o 9.2 Citations o 9.3 Bibliography

10 External links

Early life

Igor Sikorsky was born in Kiev, Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine), the youngest of five children. His father, Ivan Alexeevich Sikorsky, had a Russian and noble Polish (Polish: szlachta) family background. A professor of psychology, Ivan was the son and grandson of Russian Orthodox priests and held monarchist and Russian nationalist views.[5][6][7]

Igor Sikorsky's mother, Mariya Stefanovna Sikorskaya (née Temryuk-Cherkasova),[8] was a physician who did not work professionally. She is sometimes called Zinaida Sikorsky. While homeschooling young Igor, she gave him a great love for art, especially in the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci, and the stories of Jules Verne. In 1900, at age 11, he accompanied his father to Germany and through conversations with his father, became interested in natural sciences. After returning home, Sikorsky began to experiment with model flying machines, and by age 12, he had made a small rubber band-powered helicopter.[9]

Sikorsky began studying at the Saint Petersburg Imperial Russian Naval Academy, in 1903, at the age of 14. In 1906, he determined that his future lay in engineering, so he resigned from the Academy, despite his satisfactory standing, and left the Russian Empire to study in Paris. He returned to Russia in 1907, enrolling at the Mechanical College of the Kiev Polytechnic Institute. After the academic year, Sikorsky again accompanied his father to Germany in the summer of 1908, where he learned of the accomplishments of the Wright brothers' Flyer and Ferdinand von Zeppelin's dirigible.[10] Sikorsky later said about this event: "Within twenty-four hours, I decided to change my life's work. I would study aviation."[11]

Aircraft designer

Igor Sikorsky in 1914. Portrait photograph by Karl Bulla.

With financial backing from his sister Olga, Sikorsky returned to Paris in 1909 to study aeronautics in the world-renowned Ecole des Techniques Aéronautiques et de Construction Automobile in Paris (ETACA, now École supérieure des techniques aéronautiques et de construction automobile (fr)) engineering school and to purchase aircraft parts. At the time, Paris was the center of the aviation world. Sikorsky met with aviation pioneers, to ask them questions about aircraft and flying. In May 1909, he returned to Russia and began designing his first helicopter, which he began testing in July 1909. Despite his progress in solving technical problems of control, Sikorsky realized that the aircraft would never fly. He finally disassembled the aircraft in October 1909, after he determined that he could learn nothing more from the design.[12]

I had learned enough to recognize that with the existing state of the art, engines, materials, and – most of all – the shortage of money and lack of experience... I would not be able to produce a successful helicopter at that time.[13]

Sikorsky's first aircraft of his own design, the S-1 used an 15 hp Anzani engine, that could not lift the aircraft. His second 25 hp Anzani model S-2 flew on June 16, 1910 at a height of a few

feet.[14] Later, Sikorsky built the two-seat S-5, his first design not based on other European aircraft. Flying this original aircraft, Sikorsky earned his pilot license; Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) license No. 64 issued by the Imperial Aero Club of Russia in 1911.[15] During a demonstration of the S-5, the engine quit and Sikorsky was forced to make a crash landing to avoid a wall. It was discovered that a mosquito in the gasoline had been drawn into the carburetor, starving the engine of fuel. The close call convinced Sikorsky of the need for an aircraft that could continue flying if it lost an engine.[16] His next aircraft, the S-6 held three passengers and was selected as the winner of the Moscow aircraft exhibition held by the Russian Army in February 1912.[15]

In early 1912, Igor Sikorsky became Chief Engineer of the aircraft division for the Russian Baltic Railroad Car Works (Russko-Baltiisky Vagonny Zavod or R-BVZ)[17] in Saint Petersburg.[18]

His work at R-BVZ included the construction of the first four-engine aircraft, the S-21 Russky Vityaz, which he initially called Le Grand when fitted with just two engines, then as the Bolshoi Baltisky (The Great Baltic) when fitted with four engines for the first time, each wing panel's pair of powerplants in a "push-pull" tandem configuration previous to the four tractor-engined Russki Vityaz. He also served as the test pilot for its first flight on May 13, 1913. In recognition for his accomplishment, he was awarded an honorary degree in engineering from Saint Petersburg Polytechnical Institute in 1914. Sikorsky took the experience from building the Russky Vityaz to develop the S-22 Ilya Muromets airliner. Due to outbreak of World War I, he redesigned it as the world's first four-engined bomber, for which he was decorated with the Order of St. Vladimir.

After World War I, Igor Sikorsky briefly became an engineer for the French forces in Russia, during the Russian Civil War.[19] Seeing little opportunity for himself as an aircraft designer in war-torn Europe, and particularly Russia, ravaged by the October Revolution and Civil War, he immigrated to the United States, arriving in New York on March 30, 1919.[20][21]

List of aircraft designed by Sikorsky

Russian aviators Sikorsky, Genner and Kaulbars aboard a "Russky Vityaz", c. 1913

S-6 – Three-passenger plane – 1912 S-21 Russky Vityaz Four-engine biplane – 1913 S-22 Ilya Muromets Four-engine biplane – 1913 S-29 Twin-engine Biplane - 1924 S-42 Clipper – Flying Boat – 1934 VS-300 Experimental Prototype Helicopter – 1939

VS-44 Excambian flying boat – 1942 R-4 World's first production helicopter – 1942

Life in United States

Sikorsky Aero Engineering Company stock certificate

Sikorsky S-42 flying boat

Sikorsky Skycrane carrying a house

In the United States, Sikorsky first worked as a school teacher and a lecturer, while looking for an opportunity to work in the aviation industry. In 1932, he joined the faculty of the University of Rhode Island to form an Aeronautical Engineering program and remained with the University until 1948.[22] He also lectured at the University of Bridgeport.

In 1923, Sikorsky formed the Sikorsky Manufacturing Company in Roosevelt, New York.[23] He was helped by several former Russian military officers. Among Sikorsky's chief supporters was composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, who introduced himself by writing a check for US$5,000 (approximately $61,000 in 2007 dollars).[24] Although his prototype was damaged in its first test flight, Sikorsky persuaded his reluctant backers to invest another $2,500. With the additional funds, he produced the S-29, one of the first twin-engine aircraft in America, with a capacity for 14 passengers and a speed of 115 mph.[25] The performance of the S-29, slow compared to military aircraft of 1918, proved to be a "make or break" moment for Sikorsky's funding.

In 1928, Sikorsky became a naturalized citizen of the United States. The Sikorsky Manufacturing Company moved to Stratford, Connecticut in 1929. It became a part of the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation (now United Technologies Corporation) in July of that year.[26] The

company manufactured flying boats, such as the S-42 "Clipper", used by Pan Am for transatlantic flights.[13]

Meanwhile, Sikorsky also continued his earlier work on vertical flight while living in Nichols, Connecticut. On February 14, 1929, he filed an application to patent a "direct lift" amphibian aircraft which used compressed air to power a direct lift "propeller" and two smaller propellers for thrust.[27] On June 27, 1931, Sikorsky filed for a patent for another "direct lift aircraft", and was awarded patent #1,994,488 on March 19, 1935.[28] 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, being used in most helicopters produced today.[4]

Igor Sikorsky was also on the Board of Directors for the Tolstoy Foundation Center in Valley Cottage, New York.

Family

Sikorsky was married to Olga Fyodorovna Simkovitch in Russia. They were divorced and Olga remained in Russia with their daughter, Tania, as Sikorsky departed ahead of the October Revolution. In 1923, Sikorsky's sisters immigrated to the United States, bringing six-year old Tania with them.[29] Sikorsky married Elisabeth Semion (1903–1995) in 1924, in New York.[30] Sikorsky and Elisabeth had four sons; Sergei, Nikolai, Igor Jr. and George.[31]

Tania Sikorsky von York (1918 – September 22, 2008), Sikorsky's eldest child and only daughter. Tania was born in Kiev, Ukrainian People's Republic, eventually part of the Soviet Union. Educated in the United States, she earned a B.A. at Barnard College and a doctorate at Yale University. She was one of the original faculty members of Sacred Heart University in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where she served as Professor of Sociology for 20 years.[32]

Sergei Sikorsky (1925– ), Sikorsky's eldest son. Sergei served in the United States Coast Guard, and later earned a degree from the University of Florence. He joined United Technologies in 1951, and retired in 1992, as Vice-President of Special Projects at Sikorsky Aircraft.[33][34]

Igor Sikorsky Jr. is an attorney, businessman and aviation historian.[35]

Nickolai Sikorsky His grandson, Igor Sikorsky III, is also a pilot, and, together with his wife Karen, owns

and operates Bradford Camps on Munsungan Lake in remote northern Maine.[36]

Death and legacy

Sikorsky died at his home in Easton, Connecticut, on October 26, 1972, and is buried in Saint John the Baptist Greek Catholic Cemetery located on Nichols Avenue in Stratford.[37]

The Sikorsky Memorial Bridge, which carries the Merritt Parkway across the Housatonic River next to the Sikorsky corporate headquarters, is named for him. Sikorsky has been designated a Connecticut Aviation Pioneer by the Connecticut State Legislature. The Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation in Stratford, Connecticut, continues to the present day as one of the world's leading helicopter manufacturers, and a nearby small airport has been named Sikorsky Memorial Airport.[38]

Sikorsky was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame and the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1987.[39][40]

In October 2011, one of the streets in Kiev was renamed after Sikorsky. The decision was made by the City Council at the request of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, which opened its new office in that street.[41] The Sikorsky's family house in the city's historical center is preserved to this day but is in a neglected condition pending restoration.

In November 2012, one of the Russian supersonic heavy strategic bomber Tu-160, based at the Engels-2 Air Force Base, was named after Igor Sikorsky, that caused controversy among air base crew members. One of the officers said that Igor Sikorsky doesn't deserve it because he laid the foundations of the U.S., rather than Russian aviation. However, the Long Range Aviation command officer said that Igor Sikorsky is not responsible for the activities of his military aircraft.