Alexander Alexandrovitch Nikolsky (Russian: Александр Александрович Никольский, 1903-1963) was a Russian-born American aeronautical engineer who worked in the domain of rotary-wing aircraft. Professor Alexander Alexandrovitch Nikolsky (nicknamed "Nick"), was born in 1903 in Tsarist Russia. He began his career as a cadet in the Russian Imperial Navy. He was serving on a naval training ship in Vladivostok when the Revolution of 1917 overwhelmed Russia. He and his fellow cadets took the ship and sailed it to Japan. He later made his way to Cairo, then to Paris. The White Russian community in Paris took him in hand, and entered him in the Sorbonne, where he received certificates in mathematics and physical mechanics. Before he left Paris he also qualified for degrees in electrical and mechanic