Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky was born on May 25, 1889 in Kiev Russia. He was one major cool man and was a huge innovator in the world of aviation - in both helicopter technology and fixed-wing aircraft, in some ways maybe even more important than the Wright Brothers. He emigrated to the USA on March 11, 1919. You can catch a short video with Sikorsky here.
Wikipedia has a very good article to learn more about his life. Another very cool aviation film to watch if you like airplanes and aviation history is called Conquest of the Air, with Lawrence Olivier.
Also of note - Sikorsky was a man of great faith. Hey, you'd have to be to invent a working helicopter. Let me close my brief tribute to Sikorsky with a quote:
Our concerns sink into insignificance when compared with the eternal value of human personality - a potential child of God which is destined to triumph over lie, pain, and death. No one can take this sublime meaning of life away from us, and this is the one thing that matters.
