MAILBAG

HELICOPTER PIONEERS

our May issue was, as usual, quite interesting. But of particular interest was the article “Forgotten Whirlybird,” about Maitland Bleecker’s helicopter. My father, Igor I. Sikorsky, while clearly one of aviation’s pioneering geniuses, was quite humble. Late in his life (he died on October 26, 1972) he would be introduced as “the man who invented the helicopter.” He would demur, not out of false modesty, but true humility. I heard him repeatedly deny being an “inventor,” claiming only “to have designed the first successful helicopter