Special: Igor Sikorsky’s Birthday Weekend

Pilots!

Get out your flying gear and be prepared to log some serious ‘Flight Time’ for this weekend. We’ll be celebrating the birthday of Russian aviator Igor Sikorsky with a cool little special in the game!

As you know, you already receive double experience after each battle. During this offer, we are increasing this bonus to:

8 x Experience for the first victory of the day

4 x Experience for the second and third victory of the day

Grinding your way up to your favourite top tier plane should become a lot easier when you have a celebratory multiplier applied!

Igor Sikorsky (1889-1972) was a Russian aviation pioneer who made major strides in advancing aircraft development in the first half of the last century. In 1909, he began his prolific career at a very young age by experimenting with helicopters before turning his attention to first mono- and then biplanes which caught the public’s attention due to their stunning technical capabilities for the time.

Sikorsky mainly made a name for himself by designing the S-21, a plane which was dubbed “Russky Vityaz” in 1913 (the first four-engine fixed wing aircraft ever), and its follow-up version the S-22 “Ilya Muromets” in 1914, an unusual biplane of enormous size and power, capable of carrying loads which were unheard of and thought to be impossible by the competition. At a time when most planes were barely capable of carrying only the pilot, his planes were a huge technological advance with their impressive flight capabilities.

Although initially intended as airliners, featuring a roomy cabin where people could even stand upright during the flight, he was forced to change the nature of his creations and adapt them for military purposes as WW I approached. His bomb and machine gun-equipped “Ilya Muromets” (named after a famous Russian epic hero) was of invaluable service to Russia during the war, for which the Russian Emperor Nicholas II personally awarded Sikorsky an honorary medal.

After the revolution he immigrated to the US where he went on to become a driving force in American aviation as well, designing airliners such as the S-29-A and even flying boats such as the S-42 (used by Pan Am for transatlantic flights), both of which set new standards for these types of airships. In 1939 he returned to his original passion for vertical take-off aircraft, when he invented the Vought Sikorsky VS-300, the first successful single lifting rotor helicopter in the United States. Sikorsky will be remembered as a very productive inventor and engineer whose creations would constantly push the boundaries of aerial technology.

Get the bonus this weekend from May 24^th at 07:30 CEST (05:30 GMT) until May 27^th at 07:00 CEST (05:00 GMT)!

With that in mind, time to get airborne, Pilots!