Aero-Linx!

Scouring the information super airways can sometimes be a tough, if educational, task for the Aero-News staff... but it also allows us to check out some truly neat and exciting sites, so it's not that bad a gig. On any given day, we may check dozens (and often hundreds) of different sources for story ideas, and facts confirmation. And, as is the nature of our business, much of this is done on the Internet.

The ANN gang decided we probably shouldn't keep some of the neat sites, info resources, and organizations we've discovered to ourselves... so we decided to bring you Aero-Linx. These are the sites that WE check out -- when we need added perspective, a new spin on a day's topic... or just want to escape into cyber-aero-space for awhile.

Look for some of our favorite sites, coming each day to ANN via Aero-Linx. Suggestions for future Aero-Linx segments are always welcome, as well.

Aero Linx: Igor I. Sikorsky Historical Archives

Fall of 2009 marked the 100th Anniversary and not long after the Wright Brothers notable successes, Igor Sikorsky began experimenting with the helicopter. Notably unsuccessful in those efforts, within 10 years he was famous in Kiev (now Ukraine) in Imperial Russia and honored by the Czar, for his fixed- wing, including the first four-engine aircraft in the world first flown only ten years after the Wright Brothers first flight in 1903.
Forced to flee Russia for his life, he arrived in America in 1919, impoverished and out-of -work.

Kept alive through sheer determination and dogged persistence, within 10 years again, he was well known and on the brink of success. But for a take-off accident, his multi-engine aircraft might well have won the Orteig prize, shortly after it was claimed by Charles Lindbergh.

He went on again to produce multi-engine seaplanes which became the core of inter-national passenger travel. Those aircraft became the core of his companies’ successes. Since the end of the Cold War, interest in the Sikorsky history has even surged in former countries of the Soviet Union, particularly in his birth location, Kiev, Ukraine. In Russia and the Ukraine major celebrations of the 120th  Year of Igor Sikorsky’s Birth took place on May 25, 2009. The Archives are very proud to have had the opportunity to contribute artifacts and historical memorabilia to the respective organizations sponsoring these celebrations. The Igor I. Sikorsky Historical Archives, Inc. is A Nonprofit 501(c) (3) organization.

These are the elements that form the basis of the Igor I. Sikorsky Historical Archives - to collect and preserve the testament to Igor Sikorsky's history and his legacy.

FMI: https://www.sikorskyarchives.com