Rostislav Evgenievich Alexeyev was born on December 18, 1916, in
Novozybkov,
Chernigov Governorate,
Russian Empire (now in
Bryansk Oblast,
Russia) to an
agronomist father and a
teacher mother. In 1933 his family moved to
Gorky, and in 1935 enrolled in a
shipbuilding course at the
Gorky Industrial Institute. Alexeyev graduated on October 1, 1941, after successfully defending his final
thesis on
hydrofoils, and was awarded the title of engineer-shipbuilder. He was sent to work at the
Red Sormovo shipbuilding factory, but the entry of the
Soviet Union into
World War II following the
German invasion of the Soviet Union earlier that year meant the factory was instead manufacturing
tanks for the war effort rather than ships.
Hydrofoils Alexeyev initially served as a
foreman for tank production, but in 1942 was reallocated by the
Soviet Navy to developing hydrofoils for combat use. His designs were not completed by the end of the war in 1945, but the Soviet government maintained interest in them and 340 hydrofoil vessels had been planned by the late 1940s. Alexeyev continued working on hydrofoils and became chief designer of the
Raketa, the first passenger hydrofoil commercially produced in the Soviet Union, which began production in 1957. The
Raketa was presented at the International Festival of Youth and Students in
Moscow that year, and interest in hydrofoils grew even further. Alexeyev was chief designer for numerous passenger hydrofoil designs produced at Red Sormovo, including the
Meteor, the '
, the ', the ''
, and the Sunrise''.
Ground-effect vehicles in
Moscow. In 1962, Alexeyev began working at the
Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau which specialized in the secret development of
ground-effect vehicles, named
ekranoplans. In the 1950s the Soviet Union saw a great interest in ground-effect vehicles, which at the time were largely ignored by the rest of the world, and had been developing them at a rapid pace. Ground-effect vehicles were technically
aircraft, but operated using
ground effect to travel only several meters above flatter surfaces, particularly
bodies of water, leading them to be classified as ships by the Soviet government. The Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau planned a massive ekranoplan utilizing the
"Wing In Ground" (WIG) effect, and Alexeyev was invited to participate in development due to his expertise with hydrofoils. Only two years after development began the project resulted in the
Korabl Maket (KM), better known in
English as the Caspian Sea Monster, with Alexeyev as the chief designer and V. Efimov as the lead engineer. When the KM's functioning prototype of the project was completed in 1966, it was
largest and heaviest aircraft in the world, but as it was a secret project at the time this benchmark was unknown to the world. It was powered by eight Dobrynin VD-7
turbojet engines on the front of the
fuselage, and two on the tail for extra thrust during
takeoff. The KM was produced at the Red Sormovo factory in Gorky, then secretly transported along the
Volga river to
Kaspiysk, where it would be stationed to undergo testing by the Soviet Navy in the
Caspian Sea operated by
test pilots of the
Soviet Air Force. On its first flight on October 16, 1966, the KM was co-piloted by Alexeyev himself, which was unusual as aircraft designers never normally operated their own creations. The KM was at first seen as a promising vehicle specialized for use by military and rescue workers but its design caused many difficulties, progress slowed and Alexeyev quickly moved on to other ekranoplan projects. The most successful project was the
A-90 Orlyonok, which made its first flight in 1972, and was commissioned by the Soviet Navy in 1979. The Orlyonok saw limited use as a
military transport vehicle, and three of the five units produced were in active service until 1993. == Death ==