Jeff's Helicopter Philes

"The idea of a vehicle that could lift itself vertically from the ground and hover motionless in the air was probably born at the same time that man first dreamed of flying." Igor Ivanovitch Sikorsky

Sikorsky Aircraft is part of the Defense Systems Group of United Technologies Corporation. The company was founded in 1923 by Igor Sikorsky as the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corp, and has been affiliated with UTC since 1929 when it moved to Stratford, Conn., from Long Island.

In the 1920s and 1930s Sikorsky produced land-based aircraft, amphibians and flying-boats, including the flying Clippers, which pioneered commercial transoceanic air routes.

Since the early 1940s, Sikorsky has concentrated its efforts on helicopters.

By 1996, has produced more than 7800 rotary-wing aircrafts; further 1800 built by foreign licensees