MODEL RELEASED. Igor Sikorsky (1889-1972), Russian-US aviation pioneer outside Thompson Products in 1954. Sikorsky was born in Kiev, Russia (now the Ukraine). He emigrated to the USA in 1919 after building and flying the first four-engined aeroplane. In 1923 he founded the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Company and went on to construct a number of flying boats and, in 1939, the first successful helicopter, the VS300. The commercial version went into production in 1943 and was used by the US army during World War II.