GREAT AVIATION QUOTES
Igor Sikorsky


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There are 11 quotes matching Igor Sikorsky in the collection:


This machine was a failure to the extent that it could not fly. In other respects it was a very important and necessary stepping stone.

Igor Sikorsky

Regards the first helicopter, built 1909.

Truth in politics is optional — Truth in engineering is mandatory.

Igor Sikorsky

Undated, from the Igor I Sikorsky Historical Archives.

The work of the individual still remains the spark that moves mankind ahead, even more than teamwork.

Igor Sikorsky

Quoted in his New York Times obituary, 27 October 1972.

If a man is in need of rescue, an airplane can come in and throw flowers on him, and that’s just about all. But a direct lift aircraft could come in and save his life.

Igor Sikorsky

1947. This is the exact wording from the Sikorsky Archives. The line is often misquoted in a somewhat cleaner format as “If you are in trouble anywhere in the world, an airplane can fly over and drop flowers, but a helicopter can land and save your life”.

direct lift

The helicopter appeared so reluctant to fly forward that we even considered turning the pilot’s seat around and letting it fly backward.

Igor Sikorsky

Regards the prototype VS-300, 1940.

Automobiles will start to decline almost as soon as the last shot is fired in World War II. The name of Igor Sikorsky will be as well known as Henry Ford’s, for his helicopter will all but replace the horseless carriage as the new means of popular transportation. Instead of a car in every garage, there will be a helicopter… These ‘copters’ will be so safe and will cost so little to produce that small models will be made for teenage youngsters. These tiny ’copters, when school lets out, will fill the sky as the bicycles of our youth filled the prewar roads.

Harry Bruno

Aviation publicist, 1943.

Supersonic airplanes have carried men at more than 2,000 miles per hour and there are reasons to believe that this speed will be doubled by 1960 or so.

Igor Sikorsky

14 January 1958.

Pan Am 1969

The helicopter is probably the most versatile instrument ever invented by man. It approaches closer than any other to fulfillment of mankind's ancient dreams of the flying horse and the magic carpet.

Igor Sikorsky

Comment on 20th anniversary of the helicopter’s first flight, 13 September 1959. Quoted in 2011 book In The Story of the Winged-S: The Autobiography of Igor I. Sikorsky.

[In 1909] Aeronautics was neither an industry nor even a science; both were yet to come. It was an art and I might say a passion. Ineed, at that time it was a miracle. It meant the realization of legends and dreams that had existed for thousands of years and had been pronounced again and again as impossible by scientific authorities. Therefore, even the brief and unsteady flights of that period were deeply impressive. Many times I observed expressions of joy and tears in the eyes of witnesses who for the first time watched a flying machine carrying a man in the air.

Igor I. Sikorsky

In 16 November 1964 speech to the Wings Club, New York City. Quoted in 1964 book Recollections and Thoughts of a Pioneer: First Wings Club "sight" Lecture

Please accept my sincere thanks for your recent letter and for the enclosure describing the Sao Paulo helicopter rescues. I had it read to me (my eyesight has failed to such an extent that I can no longer read) and found it interesting indeed.

I always believed that the helicopter would be an outstanding vehicle for the greatest variety of life-saving missions and now, near the close of my life, I have the satisfaction of knowing this has proved to be true.

Igor Sikorsky

Letter to Jerome Lederer of the Flight Safety Foundation
25 October 1972. It is the last letter dictated and signed by Mr. Sikorsky. He died the next day, at age 84. This is the file copy held by the Sikorky Archives:

Sikorsky last letter

At that time [1909] the chief engineer was almost always the chief test pilot as well. That had the fortunate result of eliminating poor engineering early in aviation.

Igor Sikorsky

Reported in AOPA Pilot magazine February 2003. .


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