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Russian Giant by Stan Stokes.
Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky was one of the early pioneers in the Russian aircraft industry. He was a brilliant and tenacious designer. In contrast to the accepted wisdom of the day, Sikorsky was convinced that very large multi-engine aircraft would some day become commonplace. In 1913 he had completed a 9,000 pound aircraft which was commonly referred to as the Grand. Unfortunately this aircraft was destroyed in a freak accident when the engine from another aircraft fell out of the sky and hit the Grand while it was parked in its hangar. Not deterred by this stroke of bad luck, Sikorsky went to work on an even more elaborate design. Called the Ilya Muromets (after a Russian folk hero) the second of Sikorskys Russian giants weighed slightly more than 10,000 pounds and was powered by four German-made 100-HP Argus engines. With a 102 foot wingspan and a 70-foot fuselage, the Muromets was an extraordinary aircraft for its time. An enclosed cabin was heated by the exhaust from the engines, and two balconies were available. A washroom was included and the passenger cabin was equipped with tables and chairs. Czar Nicholas II was a major supporter of aviation, but many influential people in the military questioned the value of the Muromets as a military weapon. Despite this skepticism, Sikorsky took his pet dog and sixteen passengers aloft on February 24, 1914. In June of 1914 Sikorsky piloted the Muromets on a 1,600 mile round trip flight from St. Petersburg to Kiev. Before Sikorskys triumphant return to St. Petersburg, the seeds to WW I had been sown by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Sikorsky immediately went to work on building new and improved models of his giant aircraft, with the specific interest now in producing a long range bomber and reconnaissance aircraft. In October of 1914 a Muromets dropped 320 pounds of bombs from an altitude of 4,000 feet at the Petrograd testing grounds. In February of 1915, as depicted in Stan Stokes painting entitled Russian Giant, a Ilya Muromets V Kievsky II model dropped 600 pounds of bombs on the railway station at Mlava, significantly damaging the facility. A total of 75 of Sikorskys giant bombers were sent to the front between 1914 and 1918. The aircraft had defensive armament with machine gunners in various positions. The bomber was typically flown with a crew of four. Only three of the aircraft sent to the front were destroyed in combat. As Revolution swept Russia near the end of WW II Sikorsky left his homeland for the United States, where he would become one of the giants of the American aviation industry.
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VIEW ALL ILYA MUROMETS AIRCRAFT ART
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