AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2016 - 84

AVIATION HISTORY SITES
See the homes and sites of aviation greats
The Sikorsky Aircraft facility in Stratford, Connecticut, is
open to visitors, including the Igor Sikorsky memorial office.
You can sit at his desk-and try on the fedora.
Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park.
Five landmarks and a historic district illustrate Ohio's aviation heritage-the Wright Cycle Co. building, Hoover block,
Huffman Prairie Flying Field, 1905 Wright Flyer III, Hawthorn
Hill, and the Paul Laurence Dunbar State Memorial.
www.nps.gov/daav
Wright Brothers National Memorial is located in Kill
Devil Hills, North Carolina. A visitor center, Wright Flyer replica, and reproductions of the 1903 camp buildings are on site.
www.nps.gov/wrbr
The Navy's Lakehurst Historical Society in New Jersey,
was home to the rigid airships and blimps of the late 1930s. It
is also the site of the 1937 Hindenburg disaster. www.nlhs.com
Visit Charles A. Lindbergh's boyhood home on the
Mississippi River in Little Falls, Minnesota. Try out the Spirit of
St. Louis flight simulator. www.charleslindbergh.com
Stinson Field in San Antonio, Texas, is the second oldest
continuously operating airport in the United States, started by
the flying Stinson family. www.texasairmuseum.org
Wilbur Wright trained the first military aviators at College
Park Airport in Prince George's County, Maryland. College
Park is the oldest continuously operating airport in the nation.
www.collegeparkaviationmuseum.com
Before they were Red Tails pilots, the Tuskegee Airmen
trained at Moton Field in Tuskegee, Alabama. The Tuskegee
Airmen National Historic Site is adjacent to the 5,000-footrunway general aviation airport. www.nps.gov/tuai
Visit the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum (below) in
Atchison, Kansas. www.ameliaearhartmuseum.org
Wichita-the Air Capital of the World-has the Kansas
Aviation Museum. www.kansasaviationmuseum.org
The Armstrong Air and Space Museum is in Wapakonta,
Ohio, the hometown of Neil Armstrong-the first man to walk
on the moon. The museum features the Gemini VIII spacecraft,
Armstrong's space suits, and a moon rock. www.armstrong
museum.org
WEB

www.aopa.org/destinations

HIS GRANDFATHER'S original helicopter license and a
letter from Helen Keller are among Sikorsky's historic
collection. Sikorsky's first helicopter test flight (below).
Note the ever-present fedora the elder Sikorsky
always wore-even when flying.

a much-more-accessible private island. Igor Sikorsky made viable
the helicopter in America, but when he was approached by United
Aircraft for his designs, he asked only for a salary-and for the guaranteed salaries of the other Russian immigrants who had helped
him build his helicopter. "He was in debt for most of his career,"
the younger Sikorsky says.
Sikorsky escaped Russia before the Russian Revolution because,
as an inventor for the czar, he would have been considered a noble.
That didn't end well for most. He came to the United States alone,
preparing the way for his wife and daughter. But soon after he
arrived, he received a Dear John letter from his wife. She'd met
someone else and was staying in Russia-but their daughter was on
a ship, bound for America.
Sikorsky later remarried and had four more children, all sons.
Igor III is the son of the third son. Old photographs show a respectable and obviously well-to-do family. But Sikorsky did not forget his
humble beginnings in the United States, where he and his workers
created blades for his helicopter designs from metal slats left over
from the war's hospital cots. He also was a deeply religious man
who, toward the end of his life, wrote books about his spiritual journey-and one about his interpretation of the Lord's Prayer.
"My grandfather had a feeling of destiny," Sikorsky tells the rapt
listeners as a mouse scurries across the lodge floor. "His belief was
that this life is a minor stepping stone in the evolution of our souls."
One visitor for Sikorsky Weekend can barely contain his joy at
being here. He clutches a book that he found as a young man, which
was signed by Igor Sikorsky. He's had it signed by Igor Jr. and now
wants the grandson to sign it. Peter Curry is a New York City firefighter who was profoundly affected by a biography about Sikorsky.
He read it when he was a teenager and has been enamored of the
inventor ever since. He has been to the Sikorsky Aircraft facility in
Stratford, Connecticut, and visited the memorial office that is still
there. "I sat in his chair but didn't touch his hat," Curry remembers.
Most photos of the era show Sikorsky wearing a stylish fedora on
the test flights. "I wish I'd touched the hat."
Curry's wife, Ellen, is a banker. The couple lives in Queens. She is
the one who found out about Sikorsky Weekend and proudly boasts
that her husband knows "everything" about the inventor. They both
thoroughly enjoy this step away from civilization-although Curry
walks the entire shore while his wife kayaks the massive lake, making sure she stays safe. "He was working September 11," she confides.
He doesn't elaborate.
The elder Sikorsky lived to see the first spacewalk and meet Neil
Armstrong. But the younger Sikorsky thinks his grandfather would
have been most gratified by the fact that his helicopters are used
for rescue operations. Helicopters were his first love, although he
designed fixed-wing aircraft in the United States, most notably a flying boat. "He always believed the helicopter would have its greatest
achievements in rescuing people," the younger Sikorsky says. "That
would be the verification of his dream."
AOPA
EMAIL julie.walker@aopa.org

84 | AOPA PILOT March 2016

http://www.nps.gov/daav http://www.nps.gov/wrbr http://www.nlhs.com http://www.charleslindbergh.com http://www.texasairmuseum.org http://www.collegeparkaviationmuseum.com http://www.nps.gov/tuai http://www.ameliaearhartmuseum.org http://www.kansasaviationmuseum.org http://www.armstrongmuseum.org http://www.armstrongmuseum.org http://www.aopa.org/destinations

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2016