The VS-300, created by Igor Sikorsky, became the first successful helicopter after its historic tethered flight on September 14, 1939. (© Bettmann / CORBIS)
HelicopterWhile Jules Verne is perhaps most famous for his fictional submarine, the Nautilus, the French author also envisioned the future of flight. Igor Sikorsky, inventor of the modern helicopter, was inspired by a Verne book, Clipper of the Clouds, which he had read as a young boy. Sikorsky often quoted Jules Verne, saying “Anything that one man can imagine, another man can make real.”
