Skip to main content
Flieger (1989) 

Kyiv - Where helicopters were born 

KYIV DESTINATION: Yaroslaviv Val 

On Yaroslaviv Val St, about 400m away from the Golden Gate square you will come across an empty 19th century building on the left. Currently awaiting renovation, the Kyiv photography archive has used the windows as a place to display portraits from the era.
If you walk through the archway in that building you will come into a courtyard with a further derelict yellow building. It was in this courtyard where the very first helicopter flight in the world took place (see last photo of the machine).
The yellow building was the home of Igor Sikorskiy and his parents. He was home tutored here by his mother who was a scientist. His father would take him on business trips to Europe and here he first learned of the Wright Brothers success in manned flight. This inspired him back in Kyiv to replicate their experiments.
 
The yellow building also has a built-in arch, and here you will find a make-shift museum of posters in Ukrainian and in English which explain his story and feature photos of some of his inventions.
 
 By 1903 Sikorskiy went to study in St Petersburg and he travelled to the USA after the Russian revolution in 1919. By 1923 he set up his own aviation business, and Russian composer Rachmaninoff invested in the company. There he designed many famous planes and helicopters, some which still bear his name to this day. In 1942 Sikorskiy produced the first production line helicopter.
Do you know of any other links to Kyiv with aviation?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ukrainian Letter of the Day:  Н  = N б = b  а = a  н = n  к = k банк = bank
Post a Comment
Read more
Addicted to You (2002)  Ukrainian Pie   KYIV DESTINATION: Pie shops If you stand by St Sophia's cathedral in the upper city, you will notice a pink tower in a nearby street.  This is the 19th century fire station watch tower. Diagonally opposite the forestation is a restaurant called Штолле - or Stolle  http://stolle.com.ua/en/ .   This chain specialises in Ukrainian pies (Pirog). Pie is a very complex affair in Ukraine with a variety of vegetarian, meat, fish and fruit centres. Pie is a meal in itself. The fillings combine vegetables and meat and flavours. Examples include Cowberry pie, Rabbit and Mushrooms Pie, Herring Pie, Cherry Pie and Brocilli Pie, among others. Each pie is enormous and can feed a large family. In Stolle you can buy slices or a whole pie to eat in or take away. The store / restaurant is currently undergoing refurbishment ready for Eurovision! If you prefer something smaller than a Pirog, then you can try little pies, or Pi
Post a Comment
Read more
Believe'n'Peace (1999)  Maltese Connections  EUROVISION COUNTRY: Malta KYIV DESTINATIONS: Maltese Restaurant Porto; Dog friendly cafes in Kyiv Unlike many other European cities, Kyiv can boast of it's own Maltese restaurant, called Porto  http://porto-rest.com/en/ , which provides excellent (if expensive - at €20 a person) fish and southern Mediterranean dishes. It has been completely renovated last year. Below we show the before on the left, and the after on the right. Porto is located very close to Olympiska metro station, a corner kick away from the main football stadium. All is not what it seems, however, as the chef/owner is Serbian! The same can be said of another "Maltese" institution in Ukraine: The Sovereign Order of Malta:  http://forbes.net.ua/nation/1400976-posol-maltijskogo-ordena-v-ukraine-nasha-tradiciya-so-dnya-osnovaniya-byt-s-temi-kto-stradaet-i-n   The Order of Malta is a government without a territory or political or econom
Post a Comment
Read more