helped bring about the air transporta- tion system we know today by linking the United States, the Caribbean and South America and later making transatlantic and transpacific routes possible. In 1929, the Sikorsky Aviation Corporation became a subsidiary of the United Aircraft and Transport Company (later known as United Technologies).
During reorganization
within United Aircraft brought about by World War II, Sikorsky Aviation merged with Chance Vought resulting in Vought-Sikorsky.
Subsequent aircraft
designs were designated with a VS prefix to represent the merged companies. Igor Sikorsky never gave up on building a successful helicopter. Even as his flying boats were meeting with great success in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Sikorsky continued to refine his helicopter designs. By the late 1930s the sea plane market was declining rapidly due in large part to the construction of land based airfields and the rapid expansion of aviation brought about by World War II. In 1938, United Aircraft decided to shut down its Sikorsky Aircraft division. Seeing this as possibly his last opportunity to achieve his dream of rotary winged flight, Igor Sikorsky was able to persuade United Aircraft to allow him to retain a small group of engineers to develop a helicopter (Spenser, 1998). This was a tough sell to the United Aircraft leadership as helicopters were
considered both impossible and impractical in the 1930s. However, Sikorsky’s reputation as a great designer coupled with his honesty and humility earned him the chance he had been hoping for. Igor Sikorsky quickly went to work designing and building what would become the first North American helicopter, the VS-300. Powered by a seventy-five horsepower Lycoming engine and utilizing a single main rotor and tail rotor configuration, the VS- 300 first lifted off of the ground on September 14, 1939 (Sikorsky, 2007).
In May of 1940, Igor Sikorsky made the first public demonstration flights in the VS-300 and was subsequently issued the first helicopter license by the National Aeronautic Association of the United States. The VS-300 went through many design changes as it was used to solve such defining helicopter problems as control, stability, gyroscopic precession and vibrations. Along with using the VS-300 to test out his ideas, Sikorsky taught himself and several others to fly helicopters. Sikorsky flew the VS-300 to a world endurance record of one
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