Igor Sikorsky
In June 1909, Igor Sikorsky built his first electric rc helicopters, the S-1, in Kiev, Russia. The wooden craft weighed 450 pounds (204 kilograms) and had dual coaxial rotors. But the two blades were inefficient, and the most powerful engine that was available, a 25-horsepower (20 kilowatt) Anzani engine, could not lift its own weight. The next year, he built the S-2, which weighed only 400 pounds (181 kilograms) and had a three-blade rotor system. This model could rise, but the engine was too weak to carry a passenger. The machine also shook and vibrated violently because it needed a stiffer frame. Sikorsky turned to airplane development, returning to gas rc helicopters only in the 1930s after he emigrated to the United States.
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