News

Mr. Sergei Sikorsky, son of Igor Sikorsky – the founder of Sikorsky Aircraft, a pioneer of aviation, and the inventor of the modern, practicable helicopter will be the guest of honou of the MSPO exhibition. Mr. Sikorsky will provide a short presentation on his father’s pioneering aviation achievements, including the development of the first viable helicopter. All aviation aficionados will have the chance to meet the man who is a link to the golden days of fixed and rotary-winged aviation, as someone who keeps alive the history, people and technology of a very special era.

Born in New York in 1925, he grew up in Connecticut, watching his father, aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky, building the famous Sikorsky flying boats and “Clippers” for Pan American Airways and other customers around the world. He remembers his first flight, about 8 years old seated on his father’s lap in the copilots’ seat of a twin-engined S-38 amphibian.

He remembers visits to the Sikorsky home by the Lindbergh family, Colonel “Jimmy” Doolittle, Captain “Eddie” Rickenbacker, and many other aviation greats. From 1939 onwards, he followed the development of the first successful Sikorsky helicopter, the VS-300, and flew in it as a passenger, with his father at the controls.

During World War II, he served in a U.S. Coast Guard, helicopter development squadron at Floyd Bennett Field. He participated in the test and demonstration of the earliest helicopter rescue hoists, litters and baskets, and flew in some of the first helicopter search and rescue missions near the end of World War II.

Following World War II, he studied at the University of Florence, Italy, and then joined United Aircraft (now United Technologies) in 1951. Forty years of international helicopter marketing and manufacturing assignments followed, during which he lived in Germany, Japan and France. He flew many types of aircraft for business and pleasure in Europe, holding at one time or another, American, Italian, French, German and Swiss pilot licenses.

After the end of production of the Sikorsky CH-53 transport helicopter for German Army Aviation in 1975, he returned to the Sikorsky Aircraft plant in Connecticut.

He retired from Sikorsky Aircraft as Vice President Special Projects in 1992. He remains active as a consultant and has received a number of aviation honors and awards. He is fluent in French, German, Italian, Russian as well as in English. His hobbies include flying, aviation history, target shooting, painting and classical music.

Honors and awards Sikorsky has been bestowed include:

• The Italian Institute of Navigation Medal
• Sweden’s Royal Aeronautical Society’s Thulin Bronze Medal
• Honorary Doctorate in Aviation Management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
• American Helicopter Society International’s Honorary Fellow Award
• The Augusta International Fellowship Award
• The Ukrainian Cross of Yaroslav the Wise
• The Russian Helicopter Industry’s International Cooperation Medal
• The Arizona Chapter Commemorative Air Force Award
• The American Helicopter Society’s John J Schneider Historical Achievement Award

The time Mr. Sergei Sikorsky will spend at the International Defence Industry Exhibition will encompass an abundance of meetings with aviation enthusiasts, the people whoi, like Mr. Sikorsky himself, have chosen aviation as their passion and their walk of life.

The Italian Minister of National Defence Giampaolo di Paola has confirmed his attendance at the MSPO in Kielce. The MSPO trade fair will also feature the National Exhibition of Italian Ministry of Defence and the Italian industry; This display will be staged on 500 square metres of the indoor exhibition space in addition to 500 square metres outdoor. The Italian Ministry of Defence also prepares a conference which will bring together the representatives of Defence Ministries from Poland, Germany, France, UK and other countries. The MSPO’s presentation is one the elements of military and technical cooperation between Poland and Italy; this is the result of the Polish – Italian defence alliance signed in March 2012 by Tomasz Siemoniak on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Poland and Giampaolo di Paola Memorandum on behalf of Italy.