Boat "Rocket" on hydrofoils: description, technical characteristics. Water transport
Rising above the surface of the water, these ships rush past at the speed of a courier train; at the same time, they provide their passengers with the same comfort as on a jet airliner.
In the Soviet Union alone - the leading country in terms of ships of this class - hydrofoil ships of various types carried more than 20 million passengers annually on regular lines.
In 1957, the first "Rocket" of project 340 left the Feodosia shipyard in Ukraine. The ship was able to reach a speed of 60 km / h, unheard of at that time, and take 64 people on board. 
Following the "Rockets" in the 1960s, larger and more comfortable twin-screw "Meteors" manufactured by the Zelenodolsk shipbuilding plant appeared. The passenger capacity of these ships was 123 people. The motor ship had three saloons and a bar-buffet. 
In 1962, the "Comets" of the 342m project appeared, in fact the same "Meteors", only modernized for operation at sea. They could walk with a higher wave, had radar equipment (radar) 
In 1961, simultaneously with the launch of the Meteors and Comets series, the Krasnoye Sormovo shipbuilding plant in Nizhny Novgorod launched the Sputnik project 329 ship, the largest SPK. It carries 300 passengers at a speed of 65 km/h. Also, as with the Meteor, they built a marine version of the Sputnik, called the Whirlwind. But over the course of four years of operation, a lot of shortcomings were revealed, including the great voracity of four engines and the discomfort of passengers due to strong vibration. 
For comparison, "Sputnik" and "Rocket" 
Sputnik now...
In Togliatti, they made it either a museum or a tavern. There was a fire in 2005. Now it looks like this. 
The Burevestnik is one of the most beautiful ships in the entire series! This is a gas turbine developed by the Central Design Bureau of the SPK R. Alekseev, Gorky. "Petrel" was the flagship among the river SPK. Had power plant based on two gas turbine engines borrowed from civil aviation(with IL-18). Operated from 1964 until the end of the 70s on the Volga on the route Kuibyshev - Ulyanovsk - Kazan - Gorky. The Burevestnik had a capacity of 150 passengers and had an operating speed of 97 km/h. However, it did not go into mass production - two aircraft engines made a lot of noise and required a lot of fuel. 
Has not been used since 1977. In 1993, cut into scrap. 
In 1966, the Gomel Shipyard produced a ship for shallow rivers, a little over 1 meter deep "Belarus", with a passenger capacity of 40 people and a speed of 65 kilometers per hour. And since 1983, it will begin to produce a modernized version of Polesie, which already takes 53 people on board at the same speed. 
Rockets and Meteors were getting old. R. Alekseev's Central Design Bureau created new projects. In 1973, the Feodosia Shipbuilding Plant launched the second-generation Voskhod SPK.
Voskhod is a direct receiver of the Rocket. This ship is more economical and spacious (71 people). 
In 1980, at the Shipyard named after Ordzhonikidze (Georgia, Poti) opens the production of SPK "Kolkhida". Vessel speed 65 km/h, passenger capacity 120 people. In total, about forty ships were built. Currently, only two are operated in Russia: one vessel on the St. Petersburg - Valaam line, called "Triada", the other in Novorossiysk - "Vladimir Komarov". 
In 1986, a new flagship of the marine passenger SPK, the two-deck Cyclone, was launched in Feodosia, which had a speed of 70 km / h and took 250 passengers on board. It was operated in the Crimea, then it was sold to Greece. In 2004, he returned to Feodosia for repairs, but is still standing there in a semi-dismantled state. 
The steering wheel is reminiscent of the cockpit of cars from the 1950s, streamlined with smooth lines:
In this rare photo we can see the Port of Odessa on the Black Sea going back to 1984:
And here are small express trains waiting for passengers:
"Meteor", side view:
Surviving dashboard:
In the period from 1960 to 1980, many such ships were built in the Soviet Union - various modifications, shapes and sizes. More than 3,000 units are estimated to have been used in Russia and Ukraine. Most of them were developed and designed by Rostislav Alekseev, a shipbuilder, creator of hydrofoils, as well as ekranoplanes and ekranoplanes. In 1951, Alekseev and his assistants were awarded the Stalin Prize of the second degree for the development and creation of hydrofoils. The team begins to work on a hitherto unseen passenger hydrofoil vessel (SPK), which received the symbolic name "Rocket". In the summer of 1957, Alekseev presented the "Rocket" to the judgment of the world community, bringing the ship to Moscow during the International Festival of Youth and Students. From that moment on, high-speed shipbuilding began in the world.
Anniversary portrait of R. Alekseev and his monument in Nizhny Novgorod:
"Rocket" became the first Soviet passenger hydrofoil. ("Rocket-1" was built at the Krasnoye Sormovo plant.) Production continued until the mid-1970s. About 400 ships were built. "Rockets" were very popular in the USSR and beyond. Their name has become a household name and often all ships of this type are called that, confusing "Rockets" with "Meteors" and other hydrofoils. With the advent of these high-speed ships, mankind got the opportunity to quickly get by water to hard-to-reach settlements. A trip on the "Rocket" to some picturesque bay was one of the favorite views family vacation on the river. The main difference between the "Rocket", from all other hydrofoil river vessels, is the presence of a large open area in the stern. By the way, only 4 years later a similar vessel was made in the USA. The “Rockets” reached high speeds (maximum 120 km / h) thanks to a hybrid of a ship and an aircraft: they were equipped with engines from bombers. It was a unique unit, super-light, entirely made of aluminum. kg/h per cruising speed. Despite this, Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev himself was amazed by the “Rocket”, and uttered the memorable words: “Enough for us to swim along the rivers on oxen! To the modern world - modern speed!”.
The technical parameters of the "Rocket" were as follows: length - 27 m, width - 5 m, draft afloat - 1.8 m, draft during the course on the wings - 1.1 m, average speed - 60 km / h, power - 850 hp, number of passengers - 64. There was also a fire modification "Rocket-P" with two fire nozzles and water and air-foam protection systems. Soviet cruise ships were successfully exported to many countries of the world, including the USA, England, Germany, France, Italy, which did not have similar technologies. They went out of wide use immediately after the collapse of the USSR. The main reason for this was the incredible energy consumption of the vessel. True, some "rockets" are still used in flights and as pleasure ships. For example, in Moscow, since 2007, the gradual restoration of "Rocket" began, and four ships have already entered the navigation of 2009.
Era « Meteors »
"Meteors" were built from 1961 to 1991. Unlike the Komets, they were used for river cruises, and compared to the Rocket, they had greater speed and capacity. In total, more than 400 ships of this series were built. In the Nizhny Novgorod design bureau for hydrofoils named after Rostislav Alekseev, a Meteor-2000 modification was developed with imported engines and air conditioners, which was also supplied to China. By 2007, the line for the production of "Meteors" at the plant was dismantled, and motor ships of the new A45-1 project were laid down. Motor ship Meteor project 342E - duralumin, diesel, single-deck, two-shaft hydrofoil motor ship, designed for high-speed passenger transportation during daylight hours along navigable rivers, freshwater reservoirs and lakes in areas with a temperate climate. The remote control and monitoring system provides control of the ship directly from the wheelhouse. Passengers are accommodated in three cabins equipped with soft seats: bow, middle and stern - for 26, 44 and 44 seats, respectively. Wing device consists of bow and stern carrier wings and two flaps mounted on side and bottom struts of the bow wing.
Below you have a magnificent photo of the ship and beautiful scenery:
And this is an early photo of the Meteor on the Volga. Early 1970s.
Also, "Meteors" successfully performed river cruises along the Neva in St. Petersburg:
"Kometa" is a naval version of "Meteor". The project was developed in 1961. Serially produced in 1964-1981 at Feodosia shipyard"Sea" (a total of 86 "Comets" were built, including 34 for export) and in 1962-1992 at the Poti shipyard (project 342 ME, 39 ships). High-speed diesel engines for the ship were supplied by the Leningrad plant Zvezda.
"Comet" could boast of a speed of 60-70 km / h:
"Voskhod" - another type of ships, created to replace older hydrofoils - "Rockets" and "Meteors". The lead ship of the series was built in 1973. The Voskhods were built at the More shipyard in Feodosia. High-speed diesel engines for the ship were supplied by the Leningrad plant Zvezda and the plant Barnaultransmash. In total, by the beginning of the nineties, more than 150 Voskhods had been built. In the nineties, the production of Voskhod practically stopped due to the difficult situation of the manufacturing plant. In addition to the USSR, Voskhods were delivered to eighteen other countries, in particular, to Canada, Vietnam, China, the Netherlands, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Thailand, and Turkey.
The updated Katran-M and the larger Vostok (Seatech):
The ship known as "Kometa - 44" built in 1979, is now used in Turkey under the name "Ege Princess":
The Burevestnik is one of the most beautiful ships in the entire series! A real masterpiece of engineering, fantastic appearance and speed. Berevestnik seemed to have flown in from the future. This is a gas turbine developed by the Central Design Bureau of the SPK R. Alekseev, Gorky. "Petrel" was the flagship among the river SPK. It had a power plant based on two gas turbine engines (GTE) AI-20 designed by A. G. Ivchenko, borrowed from civil aviation (from Il-18). Operated from 1964 until the end of the 70s on the Volga on the route Kuibyshev - Ulyanovsk - Kazan - Gorky.
In 1993, the last surviving Burevestnik was dismantled for scrap. What a disgrace!
The Sputnik in the photo below used similar engines (4x850 hp) and could take 300 passengers on board:
The motor ship "Chaika" had a somewhat distinctive appearance, only one copy was built: "Chaika" was designed for 30 people, but developed a speed of up to 100 km / h:
Less well-known and rarely mentioned is Typhoon:
... and also do not forget about the "Swallow":
The current state of the surviving specimens built in 1960-1980, unfortunately, is not very good. With rare exceptions. Motor ships can be seen in completely different places: some collapse in the worst conditions, some are waiting for conversion into a floating restaurant or yacht, and others are completely forgotten.
Not far from Perm - rusting ships-heroes of the past against the backdrop of autumn:
Is it a restaurant or…….the unfortunate Sputnik. Samara:
Bar in a residential area of a small town in Ukraine:
In Finland, you can somehow find several perfectly functioning courts at once. Feeling like you're in the past
And in the end - a great shot of the Meteor gliding in calm water:
In Russia, the revival of hydrofoil ships began - the famous "Rockets", "Meteors", "Comets". Work on the improvement of this type of transport did not stop even in difficult times for the Russian economy. The Government of the Russian Federation included new developments on hydrofoils in the Federal Target Program for the Development of Transport. In 2016, the launch of the lead vessel, the new Kometa 120M, is planned. About the history of creation, fate and revival of this type of water transport - in the material "Top Secret".
“Were anchored from San Fernando. course for Japan. The nearest port on Ishigaki is 560 miles away. Weather - wind intensification up to 7–8 points. In order to save fuel, we go in a displacement position on one engine. This is an entry from the S-827 Comets in-flight log, made in 1974. 20 years will pass, and the production of a fundamentally new type of transport - hydrofoils - will stop ...
In the 1990s of the last century, difficult times came for the hydrofoil design bureau. The creation of “flying ships” was suspended for many years, until the idea to continue the evolutionary chain of the “Comet” reappeared. Initially, it was assumed that the new ship, which has already received its name, "Kometa 120M", will be built for the Olympics in Sochi, since there was a problem of shipping there, which threatened to turn into a serious obstacle for guests and the host during the Olympics. However, the project was hastily abandoned in favor of competitors.
ON "ROCKET" KHRUSHCHEV RIDED
For the first time, hydrofoil transport appeared on the Volga in the summer of 1957. These days Moscow hosted the VI International Festival of Youth and Students, the capital was visited by 34 thousand people from 131 countries of the world; there, "Rocket" became a truly global sensation. A year later, the hydrofoil boat will receive a gold medal at the Expo 58 World Exhibition in Brussels. This is how the whole world will learn about the Soviet designer Rostislav Evgenievich Alekseev.
In fairness, it should be mentioned that before him attempts were made to speed up water transport. Turbines have already been tried, air cushions have been tested ... The first attempts to create a hydrofoil appeared even in the 19th century. But somewhere the power of the steam engine used as an engine was not enough to develop speed, somewhere the developments were limited only to theoretical research, somewhere the hull did not rise completely above the water, and each new set speed record was broken by another development in a few years , demonstrating that the possible limits have not yet been reached. The first hydrofoil transport received the unofficial name “frog” at all - for ridiculous jumps on water at high speed. The stability of low-submerged hydrofoils was still far away.
The era of the high-speed fleet, in the form in which it became known to the whole world, began only in 1941. This year, Rostislav Alekseev, a student at the Gorky Industrial Institute, defended his thesis "Hydrofoil glider". In the drawings, the future shipbuilding engineer presented a high-speed vessel operating on the previously unknown principle of hydrofoils. analogues world history did not yet know shipbuilding, the commission was stunned.
After a brilliant defense, Rostislav Alekseev writes a report addressed to the People's Commissar of the Navy with a proposal to create a speedboat based on his existing developments. The answer was not long in coming: the schemes you presented are unacceptable, these designs are doomed to failure. At the very end of the letter it was said: "You are too ahead of your time."
There was a war, the project seemed to have been postponed indefinitely. But less than a year after receiving a refusal from the Navy to a proposal to create a new type of transport, the chief designer of the plant, Krylov, asked Alekseev to tell about his achievements in person. A few more years of work in difficult military and post-war conditions, disputes with skeptics, and again work, work, work ... In May 1957, the first "Rocket" was launched.
The tests were short. Already at the end of July, the "Rocket" headed for the same Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow from its native harbor. The "Rocket" took only 14 hours to get to Moscow from Gorky. For comparison - at that time the fastest river transport covered the same distance in only three days.
On board the first long-distance flight were employees of the Central Design Bureau for Hydrofoils, headed by Rostislav Alekseev, in the captain's cabin were Captain Viktor Poluektov and Hero of the Soviet Union Mikhail Devyatayev. For three weeks in Moscow, the "Rocket" made pleasure trips, even Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev himself swept on it.
As soon as the "Rocket" returned to Gorky's native pier, a regular flight from Gorky to Kazan was announced, and the hydrofoil became a symbol of the city where it was invented for a long time. A year later, mass production was announced at the Krasnoye Sormovo plant. A year later, in 1960, the Feodosia shipbuilding plant More joined the serial production of the Rocket.
COMET IN THE OCEAN
Its first flight from Gorky to Kazan and a distance of 420 km "Rocket" passed in 7 hours. For comparison, a conventional ship spent four times as much time on this. More than a day on the ship only one way! And the "Rocket" managed to make a flight back on the same day, which is called before dark.
The design bureau for hydrofoils under the leadership of Rostislav Alekseev, meanwhile, decided to work according to a simple scheme: “ New Year- a new ship. New models of hydrofoils were produced every year. On one of the first tests of the "Rocket", the designer of space technology, Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, was invited as a guest. Did this fact play a special role in choosing the first names for new species Vehicle on hydrofoils or simply the general cosmic rise in science affected, but the “Rocket” was followed by “Meteor”, “Meteor” - “Comet”, after “Comet” - “Sputnik” ... Cosmic velocities were given cosmic names.
But the name of the very first ship became a household name and often continued to be used to refer to all ships of this type: passenger, cargo-passenger, cargo, patrol, rescue and special purposes. Gradually, high-speed vessels linked cities and towns, regional centers with district towns. It was an incredible rise in domestic high-speed shipbuilding.
"Kometa" was the last motor ship designed personally by Rostislav Alekseev and the first in a series of sea passenger hydrofoil ships. Even if adjusted for such shortcomings as noise and vibration, noticeable on passenger seats installed near the engines, the Comet is considered the most successful of all hydrofoils. Adapted to the conditions dictated by the restless elements of the sea, with resistance to waves, designed for 120 passengers and a speed of 60 km / h, the Comet gave an unprecedented opportunity to move along the sea coasts with comfort and quickly.
In 1974, the Comet began its journey through the countries South-East Asia from Singapore. The Soviet merchant ship Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya delivered the Kometa to the port of Singapore, where the Kometa got up on its wings and went to Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. For "Kometa" it was not the first sea voyage - before that, she passed the sea route along Europe.
Among the guests who came to see the Comet in Manila was the commander of the Philippine Navy. For the country of a thousand islands, high-speed sea transport was especially interesting. Four flights per day were carried out by "Kometa" between Philippine Islands Iloilo and Calapan. It was assumed that these would be ordinary passenger flights, but needless to say, the Comet could not fit everyone on its board.
After the Philippines, there will be Japan, and the newspapers will call the 560-mile open ocean route too bold - it was autumn, the time of storms and typhoons. The Comet passed this test for seaworthiness and safely reached the Strana rising sun. In Japan, everything that helps to save time was already valued, a system of monorails was developed and high-speed trains, but Soviet hydrofoils unexpectedly turned out to be competitive. Then for the first time Japan acquired a vessel from Russia.
Demand for Soviet hydrofoils around the world increased so much that it began to exceed the possibilities of Soviet exports. "Comets" have already sailed in America, England, France, Greece, Morocco ... Japan became the nineteenth country that bought a hydrofoil ship. The Soviet Union not only supplied cruise ships to different parts of the world, but also provided them Maintenance, trained specialists. From 1959 to 1976, 389 Rockets were built, including 32 for export.
"Rockets" provided fast and reliable water communication on the Volga and on the rivers of Siberia. In the USSR, hydrofoils annually transported more than 20 million passengers on regular lines. From year to year, the design bureau for hydrofoils continued to produce new models of ships: Whirlwind, Cyclone, Burevestnik, Sputnik, Colchis, Voskhod, Albatross, Zenit ... A after all, there were also ekranoplanes - a miracle of technology from the Russian genius Rostislav Alekseev. And shipbuilding factories have earned on aviation technology.
Rostislav Alekseev had a plan to launch a passenger ekranoplan into the Baltic Sea - the journey from St. Petersburg to Kaliningrad would take only three hours. There was a proposal to turn one of the ekranoplanes into a rescue ship, and then more - 15 such rescue ships at different points of the seas and oceans, thanks to their incredible speed, would cover the entire World Ocean with their passable ability, becoming the basic basis of the World water rescue.
It would seem that these new projects have a great future, but the 1990s have come ...
ROCKET-CAFE, ROCKET-BAR, ROCKET-RESTAURANT…
In fact, there were enough reasons why the use of the Rocket as a transport began to decline. With the development of the road network and the spread of private cars, regular river transportation has become less and less popular.
One after another, “rocket” flights were closed with the wording “unprofitable”. The increase in fare was explained by expensive fuel and lack of funding. The write-off of the "Rocket" as a regular transport was explained by the impossibility of their year-round use due to seasonality. The lack of funding turned into problems with the repair and maintenance base. As a result, the once amazing hydrofoils began to fall into a terrible state, something was sold, and something was written off to the shore.
Decommissioned ashore "Rockets" were converted into cafes, bars and restaurants. On the site of the fleet of hydrofoils, you can trace the fate of almost every missile from the year of creation, first flight and home port to the year of decommissioning.
But on some routes, the Rockets held on, in spite of everything, for a long time. "Rockets" and "Meteors" from Yaroslavl until 2003 went not only to the region, but also to the cities of neighboring - Tver, Ivanovo, Kostroma and Nizhny Novgorod - regions. In Yakutia, a regular flight Yakutsk - Olekminsk existed back in 2001, and on the Kama, the last high-speed line Perm - Naberezhnye Chelny was closed in 2003.
The scope of "Rockets" narrowed year by year. They were mainly used as pleasure or sightseeing boats. So, for example, in St. Petersburg there are several competing companies with their own fleet of high-speed vessels. "Meteors" fly on the lines St. Petersburg - Peterhof and St. Petersburg - Kronstadt. Travel time is half an hour. The price for this flight is designed for tourists and, probably, for the nostalgic feelings of those who still remember the regular flights of the Rockets along the Volga.
"ROCKETS" RETURN TO NATIVE COASTS
Nevertheless, the Central Design Bureau for Hydrofoils (TsKB for SPK) named after R. E. Alekseev continued its work on new projects. In 2011, their achievements were included in the Federal Target Program for the Development of Transport.
“In Russia, the issue of updating the water transport system- The life of many vessels reaches more than 40 years. Now the Central Design Bureau for SPK is reviving the high-speed fleet, believing that there is simply no alternative to high-speed vessels in many regions of the planet, - explained "Top Secret" in the Central Design Bureau for SPK them. R. E. Alekseeva. “The main strategic goal is to create a wide and extensive network of shipping lines using high-speed sea, river, lake ships, vessels and boats for various purposes, on various maintenance principles, both in the country and abroad.”
The construction of an improved version of the Kometa - the Kometa 120M - began in 2013, preparations for construction were underway since January, the hull was laid down in the summer, and the launch of the lead ship is scheduled for the summer of 2016. The difference between the new Comet and the previous one is the increase in displacement (from 59 to 70 tons) and speed (from 60 to 65 km/h). The number of seats for passengers will remain the same - 120. It is also assumed that the new vessel will be of a different color, but these are details.
“In 2016, the Comet 120M will be launched at the Vympel shipyard in Rybinsk,” the Central Design Bureau said. – The vessel is equipped with an intuitive modern control system, specially designed to optimize control, reduce the burden on the crew. The new "Kometa" will provide passengers with the opportunity to travel comfortably in modern spacious economy and business class cabins, aircraft-type seats, with a modern air conditioning system, and spacious luggage racks for each passenger. In addition, a system for moderating pitching and overloading has been applied.
"Kometa 120M" is not the only hydrofoil that is currently being developed. In addition to it, it is planned to build the marine "Cyclone 250M" and the river "Albatross 120R" and "Valdai 45R". These new designs have also been modified from previous designs. At the "Cyclone 250M" due to gas turbine engines, speed capabilities will be increased, the number seats, as on the "Cyclone", will remain unchanged - 250. The predecessor of the "Albatross 120P" was the "Petrel".
In addition to a high level of comfort for passengers and crew, the Central Design Bureau's projects for SPK offer significant economic benefits to carriers: reduced fuel consumption through the use of new engines, improved hydrodynamic characteristics, the use of composite materials in the construction of the ship's hull; reducing the cost of maintenance due to the use of modern technologies; reduction of capital costs and operating costs. As noted in the design bureau, “the projects involve maximum environmental safety for the environment. Gas emissions and noise levels comply with international environmental standards.”
JSC "TsKB for SPK them. R. E. Alekseeva" told "Top Secret" that "they are forming a diversified enterprise that combines the design, maintenance and construction of ships, their operation and subsequent maintenance, up to disposal."
"Nah international exhibition and the scientific conference on hydroaviation “Gidroaviasalon-2014”, the Central Design Bureau for the SEC presented the lead hydrofoil boat “Dolphin,” the design bureau said. - The boat can be used as a service boat, for sea trips in the daytime, including the possibility of towing a water skier or a parachutist. Today, hydrofoil boats are being built under the Dolphin project for individual customers with a passenger capacity of seven or ten people, depending on the modification, and a speed of up to 45 knots.
It is assumed that the Valdai 45R will return to the Volga, or rather to its Nizhny Novgorod section. "Valdai 45R" is planned in such a way that, with a small draft, it can overcome those shallow water areas where a conventional vessel could not pass. In addition, its technical capabilities will make it possible to approach an unequipped shore, which will also become an advantage for "winged ships".
Valdai 45R will be ready to transport forty-five passengers during daylight hours at speeds up to 65 km/h. “When designing, specialists paid great attention to the comfort and safety of passengers and crew, as well as the maximum economic benefit for shipowners and environmental safety,” the Central Design Bureau explained to Sovershenno Sekretno. – It is planned to install modern highly economical engines to ensure maximum economic benefits for shipowners. Investments in this promising project are allocated from the enterprise's funds.
According to the Central Design Bureau, “already now the government of Nizhny Novgorod, Samara regions, the Republic of Tatarstan and many others. It can be used as a river taxi, corporate transport and tourist boat. In comparison with the previous generation SPK, hydrodynamic characteristics are improved, fuel consumption is reduced due to the use of new engines. The hull structure will be made of aluminum, the superstructure will be made of composite materials.
“Foreign customers are interested in our projects. The CDB for SEC is open to dialogue with future partners. It will depend on the customers how many Valdai 45R and Kometa 120M hydrofoils will be produced, ”the Central Design Bureau for SPK named after P.I. R. E. Alekseeva.
GAZPROM IS INTERESTED IN METEORA
Mostly now in Russia, hydrofoils are used in the tourism business and for private transportation. This area is expected to expand. Thus, Gazprom is interested in using Meteors to service oil fields and deliver people there on a rotational basis. “For the development of the Arctic, we offer ships on air cushion, ekranoplans, amphibious transport platforms, - said the Central Design Bureau for SPK them. R. E. Alekseeva. “The SPK can serve the fields only in the summer, with the function of delivering people to drilling platforms.”
The operation of hydrofoils is expected on rivers throughout Russia from the Central part to the Far East, as well as in the Black Sea. Kerch crossing as the only route of application is not appropriate, according to the Central Clinical Hospital.
There are four travel companies in St. Petersburg that use hydrofoils. The press secretary of the St. Petersburg Astra Marine Group of Companies, Daria Filimonova, told Top Secret that “about 1.5 thousand people are transported on the day of the Meteora during the season and these routes are very popular.”
“There are 6 Meteors in our “park”, which, via the Peterhof Express high-speed line, make regular flights to Peterhof, Kronstadt, the Oreshek fortress,” she said. On the construction of new SECs in the Nizhny Novgorod region travel companies so far haven't heard anything. According to them, "rumors about the construction are constantly arising, but so far no specifics have been reported - everyone has only plans so far."
“The construction of modern high-speed vessels would be an excellent tool for the development of the tourism sector,” the Astra Marine Group of Companies believes. “The current high-speed fleet is doing a great job of transporting passengers, but the appearance of new vessels would also further draw attention to the routes these vessels will travel – people love to try new things.”
Daria Filimonova told "Top Secret" that "there are many places across the country where high-speed lines are relevant."
“If we talk about St. Petersburg, then the expansion of routes to the suburbs is likely,” she said. – But this is possible only in parallel with the development of infrastructure and tourist attractiveness of these suburbs. If the vessels are similar to the Raketa-type vessels, this will significantly expand the route map, for example, to Valaam, where the Rockets can go, but the Meteors cannot go due to their technical characteristics.
Meet the hydrofoil vessel - Voskhod. Hydrofoils are the pride of the Soviet Union. In their production and operation, he was a world leader.
A unique ship, almost space)) No wonder it was classified in the USSR, at one time. Basically, the ship sailed along the rivers, but if necessary, it could also go to the sea, to the coastal zone.
Voskhod has been produced since 1973 at the Krasnoye Sormovo factories ( Nizhny Novgorod. RSFSR) and "More" (Feodosia, Ukrainian SSR). Engines high-engine diesels from bombers came from the factories "Barnaultransmash" and the Leningrad plant "Zvezda". In total, more than 150 ships were produced.
Passenger capacity over 70 people. The maximum speed is 65 km/h. Operating speed - 62 km / h. Engine power 1000 hp
But speed on the water is not easy. And the speeds of "Sunrise" are available only thanks to its forms, the hybridization of the aircraft and the ship. In the photo, the main uniqueness of these ships is the hydrofoil. When the ship accelerates, the wing under the bottom creates lift in the same way as the wing of an aircraft. The ship rises above the water and soars above it leaning on its wings. Due to this, the friction force is small and the ship can reach high speed.
During the year, hydrofoil ships transported over 20 million people to the USSR.
In the 1970s, more than 40 vessels of this type were in operation in Kyiv.
In addition to Voskhod, the USSR also produced ... its predecessors and analogues.
"Rocket" Year of issue 1957-1977. About 400 pieces were produced. Speed 70km/h. Power 900-1000 hp
"Meteor" Year of issue 1961-1991. More than 400 pieces produced. Speed 65km/h. Power 1800-2200 hp
"Comet" Year of release 1964-1992. More than 130 pieces produced. Speed 60km/h. Power 2200 hp
"Polesie" Year of release 1983-1996. Produced 115 pieces. Speed 75km/h. Power 1100 hp Able to walk along rivers a meter deep.
The flagship of the Soviet hydrofoil ships - "Cyclone" - sea two-deck machine.
Gas turbine engine power - 6,000 hp Passenger capacity - 250 people. Speed - 70 km / h.
The USSR, in addition to operating these ships at home, also supplied them to foreign markets in countries such as: USA, UK, Germany, Italy, Greece, Canada, Austria, Finland, China, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, Vietnam, Thailand.
In addition to the above ships, small-scale and experimental ships were also produced - Whirlwind, Sputnik, Burevestnik, Belarus, Colchis, Katran, Olympia, Chaika, Typhoon and others.
How Voskhody and the company saved lives...
Two Voskhods contaminated with radiation at a cemetery in Pripyat. They participated in the evacuation of residents after the accident...
In 1992, during the war between Georgia and Abkhazia, a military helicopter fired at the Kometa on the high seas. One of the missiles hit below the waterline. The crew of the ship, not at a loss, turned on the full motors. The Comet picked up speed, got on its wings and, with a hole in the side, which was now above the water level, brought 70 of its passengers safely to the shore.
Due to their speed, hydrofoils have repeatedly come out to rescue the crews and passengers of sinking ships. Not one hundred people were saved by them.
In the USSR, all civilian hydrofoils were strategic objects. In the event of hostilities, they were supposed to become high-speed hospitals, taking out the wounded from the front line.
Where did the Sunrises and their analogues go? Why did they disappear?
The operation of hydrofoils is an expensive pleasure, too complicated and expensive this device for such a great country as Ukraine - the great Ukraine itself decided - and in the 90s Ukrrichflot sold almost the entire river fleet for cheap, and this is about 100 hydrofoil ships inherited from "damned Owl" ...
Where did you sell it? Abroad.
"Sunrise" in the Kiev port before being sent abroad.
Original taken from dinolippi in Wingless "Rocket"
By and large, this is not a technical monument. But the respected owner of the community gave the go-ahead for the publication of this material here.
Near Kazan, in the village of Kirelskoe (width 55.131826, longitude 49.14235), next to the shipyard, there is a semi-abandoned Kid `s camp. An ordinary camp, nothing special, but during last year's bike tour of abandoned churches, it was mapped as a very desirable object to visit: it was used as a cinema winged ship"Rocket" type.
Having casually mentioned it in the report, I was not going to return to this place in my notes. There were few photographs, they did not represent any artistic value ... But now, eight months after that trip, I suddenly read in the news feeds: the last "Rockets" are being cut in Moscow. Two, decommissioned ten years ago, were called junk and put under the knife in mid-February; two more await the same fate on the shore. A couple more are still on the move, but for how long? And then memories came flooding back, somehow it hurt inside, and a friend writes on Skype about this ... And now I’m sorting out photos with a swift silhouette absurdly sticking out between forest trees, looking at youtube videos, rummaging in the fleetphoto.ru database ...
They cut the last "Rockets" ... It saddens me. With age, you become more and more sentimental, more and more reverent about the receding childhood, and the “Rocket” for me is one of the symbols of that carefree time: I spent the summer in a village on the other side of the Volga, and the easiest and fastest way to get there was motor ships: slow displacement "OM" or "Moskovsky" and high-speed "Rockets" and "Meteors" on hydrofoils. In addition to summer residents like us, residents of the surrounding villages traveled to the city - for example, to trade in the market with gifts from their garden, so the passenger flow was constant and rather dense. It was problematic to get to the other side by bus (even after the bridge across the Volga appeared in 1989, it was necessary to make a hefty detour on dry land, and before that it was necessary to melt down on the ferry), not everyone had a personal car, and water transport was in demand. To Kazan river port about a dozen "Rockets" and about the same number of "Meteors" were assigned, and two or three large "Comets" came from neighboring cities. I knew perfectly well all the local passenger ships and drew them in countless quantities in my albums. With summer friends, we played river port: I was a dispatcher, announced the landing and departure of flights to different marinas, and the boys drove bicycles to some house, and the farther from Kazan the declared marina was, the farther the “captain” traveled.
I still remember tickets made of dark thick paper with a red pattern and stamps: the number of the ship and the time of departure. Most often we went on the "ten o'clock" "Rocket". The Meteors almost did not go to our pier, which was not very far from the city - they only replaced the Rockets in case of severe weather and sometimes stopped by on the way to the city to pick up someone if there was room on board. I liked Meteor much more as a child: bigger, more powerful, noisier, faster, looks more modern. And there was much more interest in the Voskhod that appeared in our country towards the end of the 80s. Now, years later, when a pair of "Meteors" with "Sunrise" are still running here, all the local "Rockets" have been cut into scrap metal for twenty years, and in all of Russia (rather, in the whole world) running "Rockets" are left five pieces, I miss precisely their graceful smooth lines.
In a word, hydrofoils are a cult thing for me. But the figure of their legendary designer, Rostislav Alekseev, is no less iconic for me. This is a figure, in my opinion, on a scale no less than, say, Sergei Korolev: Alekseev made two revolutionary technological breakthroughs - first in the ship industry, creating several projects of hydrofoils from scratch, and soon in aviation, inventing an amazing machine - an ekranoplan . The fate of the designer causes at the same time a sense of pride in the country in which technical breakthroughs of this magnitude were once made, and at the same time - contempt for those in power: Alekseev, in the end, was ruined by the nomenklatura bastard. One can immediately recall the brilliant designer of helicopters Sikorsky, who was forced to flee from the revolutionary proletariat ... What is the result? The USSR mastered the technology of helicopter construction according to American models only in the 1960s, the palm in the production of "winged ships" was lost, the potential of ekranoplane construction has not yet been discovered - and this is probably a loss for all of humanity as a whole.
But I digress ... To my first big ship on hydrofoils - "Rocket", which marked a breakthrough in shipbuilding, revolutionized the transportation of passengers along the rivers, Alekseev went for almost twenty years. He caught fire with the idea of a winged ship back in the 30s, as a student at the Gorky Industrial Institute, when he got acquainted with the research on the operation of a wing in a liquid medium, and in 1941 he defended his thesis on the topic “Hydrofoil glider”. Soon, working at the Sormovo plant as a tank test master, he developed a hydrofoil torpedo boat on the basis of a graduation project, but neither the command of the Navy nor the people's commissar of the shipbuilding industry found the idea of support. However, the stubborn designer continued to work, and his research interested the leadership of Krasny Sormovo: after a year and a half, he was given the opportunity to work on his project, time was allocated, and a special hydro laboratory was created. In 1943, Alekseev created his first A-4 winged boat and ... he himself recognized it as unpromising - the design of the wings required a change in their angle of attack depending on speed, which complicated both the design of the ship and its control. However, the authorities see the positive results of the experiment, allocate a new room for the designer, and allow him to increase the staff. Two years later, in 1945, tests were carried out on the A-5 boat, which has a fundamentally new, more advanced wing scheme with self-regulating lifting force, low-immersion wings. On this boat, Alekseev reached Moscow under his own power, which attracted the attention of military officials, and received the task of equipping the 123K torpedo boat with hydrofoils, which he successfully completed (having worked out another modernization of his know-how on the A-7 boat and, along the way, familiarized himself with the design of the captured German SPK TS-6) and received the Stalin Prize for it in 1951.
In parallel, the brilliant designer developed a project for the first river passenger ship - the prototype of the Rocket. But with the implementation of the project, everything turned out to be not so simple: the engineer had to beat the thresholds of ministries for years, fight bureaucratic inertia, conservatism, skepticism, beat out funding ... Real work on the "Rocket" began only in the winter of 1956. The experimental workshop of the design bureau worked in three shifts, and by May of the following year, the experimental SPK was launched. The conditions in which the first cruise ship had to be assembled can be judged from the following message found on one forum: “My uncle worked for Alekseev (ship assembler) on the first Rocket, and together at night they went to the factory Alley of Honor and removed plexiglass, to glaze the interior. Alekseev at that time was forbidden to engage in civil projects, their funding was closed. "Rocket-1" went to Moscow to be shown to Khrushchev without glazing of the wheelhouse (did not have time to bend the windshield).
On July 26, 1957, early in the morning, the Rocket left Gorky for Moscow, where the World Festival of Youth and Students was opening. The journey took fifteen hours, while an ordinary ship covered it in three days. It was a triumph: an unusual, fast-moving ship flying over the waves aroused rapturous surprise among the audience, gave rise to envy to foreign guests and festival participants, who were rolled along the Moscow River and the Canal. Moscow, and most importantly, he received the highest party approval: Khrushchev, who had a ride on the new product, liked the Rocket very much, and Nikita Sergeevich, saying, “Enough for us to swim along the rivers on oxen! To the modern world - modern speed! ”, He gave Alekseev carte blanche for mass production.
Having worked at the World Festival for three weeks, the experimental "Rocket" entered trial operation on the Gorky-Kazan line. She covered a distance of 420 kilometers in seven hours. It took an ordinary displacement ship thirty hours; the train journey took twenty-eight hours. At the end of navigation in 1958, in September, the experience was recognized as successful - and with minor changes compared to the lead ship, the Raketa goes into series.
Rockets were built in Gorky, at the Krasnoe Sormovo plant, where the first series of ten ships was produced, and since 1960 production began in the Crimea, at the Feodosia shipbuilding plant More. The last ships of the series were launched in 1976, and almost four hundred of them were built in total. There were three main projects (modifications) of the "Rocket" - the standard 340, 340ME for shallow water, with reduced draft, and 340E (I believe that it was intended for export, but not a fact). The cabin of the 27-meter SPK was designed for 65 passengers, the operating speed was 64 km/h.
One of the first captains of the "Rocket" was Mikhail Devyatayev - the hero of the Great Patriotic War, who managed, being in captivity, to steal from the secret German airfield "Heinkel-111" and return to his homeland. It is likely that he once stood on the steering wheel of this "Rocket" with tail number 25. It was the first winged vessel assigned to the Kazan river port. Released and entered into the balance of the Volga United River Shipping Company in 1961, it was listed on it until 1992, and then it was driven a hundred kilometers down the Volga and turned into a cinema in a children's camp near the shipyard.
The ship was deprived of wings, leaving only short stump-racks, on the one hand, mutilating the "Rocket", on the other - something like this it looked like on the go. If they hadn’t completely torn off the second pillar in the bow ... Well, painted over windows also don’t add charm, of course.
This is how the wings of the Rocket look in the original:
In the stern, an entrance for a young viewer was cut out here, in the original the transom was deaf:
A nice feature of the "Rocket" was the presence of an open area and a promenade deck in the stern of the vessel - later SPK did not have this. For example, the Meteor has a promenade deck - one name: a very small covered area between the aft and bow saloons with a rather limited view, there are six people, there is nowhere to sit .... But on the "Rocket" on a hot day, passengers tried to be the first to take aft seats.
On this ladder, passengers, stepping from the pier to upper deck immediately behind the captain's cabin, descended to the stern, turned around, and walked along the promenade deck in the direction of the bow, getting into the passenger compartment.
Promenade deck, bow view...
And aft
The nose of the Rocket. An anchor protruded from a vertical slot across the state.
Nose, top view: a forecastle with an anchor windlass, or rather, without it. Sometimes passengers were allowed to walk here and clear their heads :) I really don’t remember this on the Kazan “Rockets” ...
Tightly welded and painted superstructure - captain's cabin:
And here it is in its original form (a rare shot - a snow-covered SPK):
IN group "Hydrofoils" in Vkontakte there were photos of the interior of the captain's bridge:
And this is how the passenger compartment of the Rocket looks like: if you look at the nose ...
And in the stern:
Closer to the exit to the promenade deck is a buffet. They say he even worked in some shipping companies ...
"Rocket", the first-born of the high-speed fleet of the USSR, was very popular throughout the country. Probably, on almost all navigable rivers of the Union one could hear the characteristic "rocket" rumble, and the name of the vessel became a household name: all high-speed vessels were often called “rockets”. For example, this pack of Soviet cigarettes of the Raketa brand actually depicts the Meteor SPK, the next brainchild of Rostislav Alekseev. However, usually such blunders could be avoided:
For several decades, "Rockets" have been the main transport on many of the country's high-speed waterways, linking cities and remote villages, and now operating ships of this type can be counted on the fingers of one hand - and how many navigations they still have left is unknown. It will be sad if no one saves a single legendary ship - if not as an active exhibit that would take tourists at least several times a season, then at least as a museum preserved for history in its original form, especially since so far not a single "Rocket" was honored with such a fate. After decommissioning, several motor ships, having changed with varying degrees of ugliness, were used as a cafe (the only pleasant exception is the Rocket-170 in a sanatorium near Moscow, which was preserved in almost original form), a full-fledged monument ship, alas, does not exist.
And the "Rocket" certainly deserves to be immortalized - both as a tribute to the design genius of Alekseev, and as a technical monument of value to all mankind: at the time of its appearance, the "Rocket" was the best SEC in the world - the design and design had no analogues , and for rivers, lakes and reservoirs, where the draft was of no small importance, the best high-speed ship could not be found. No wonder the “Rockets” were exported not only to the countries of the socialist bloc, but also to Germany, Great Britain and even the USA!
For Britain, several "Rockets" were built according to a separate project 340T. Based on the meager information that can be found on the Internet, we can conclude that this project was distinguished by draft (in this parameter it was something in between the basic project 340 and the shallow-draft 340M) and a slightly different input-output configuration. In particular, some English "Rockets" have an additional entrance ahead on the starboard side. Apparently, this was due to the specifics of English marinas and moorings. The ships were called "Raketa Greenwich", "Raketa Westminster", "Raketa Thames" and served suburban lines in London for two or three years, starting in 1974.
A pair of "Rockets" worked in West Germany. Since 1965, "Raketa-367" was operated in Hamburg, but in 1969 she returned to her homeland and was assigned to the Moscow River Shipping Company. The career of her sister ship of the Cologne registry, built in 1972 by order of the German company Köln-Düsseldorfer Rheinschiffahrt AG and connecting Cologne with Dusseldorf and Mainz, was longer. The Rhine rivermen suffered with the unreliable M-400 diesel engine, replacing it, according to the German wikipedia, 13 times in the 25 years that the “Rheinpfeil” (“Rhein Arrow” was the name of the local “Rocket”) served them, that is, once every two of the year. The Germans, apparently, had more patience than the British, and they parted with the Rocket only in 1997, selling it to a private owner in Holland.
And another "Raketa" worked in New York itself! It was built by order of Sudoimport specifically for the EXPO-67 exhibition in Montreal, where it was sold to the States. There she conducted navigation in 1968-69, after which she ended up on Hamilton Island (Bermuda) - one of the most amazing places where Soviet hydrofoils got.
But the most exotic place where the Rockets managed to work was, perhaps, Nicaragua. Several "Rockets" purchased in Belarus have worked on the local lines of this country for a couple of navigations since 1995. Toward the end of the century, regular flights for some reason ceased, the flotilla quickly fell into disrepair, changed owners and was cut into scrap metal.
I will mention one more of the many locations where the passengers of the Rocket were taken: the city of Pripyat. Since the mid-60s, "Rockets" from Kyiv and Gomel began to go here, later, when the city grew and the flow of passengers increased - closer to the Chernobyl disaster - a more capacious "Meteor" was also launched. According to the recollections of the inhabitants of the atomograd, high-speed motor ships were a coveted alternative to motor transport, despite more high price ticket: flying on wings along the river is much more pleasant than shaking along the road in a stuffy bus. They say that on weekends you can get a ticket for the Rocket (by the way, Ukrainian and Belarusian SPKs, as a rule, had their own names: Horizon, Typhoon, Zirka, Stepan Shutov, Matvey Bortovsky, Yuri Gagarin") was almost impossible.
While I was digging in the net, organizing, in general, mostly information already known to me, I did make an amazing discovery for myself about the Rocket. It turns out that there was a fire version of it - project 340P, with two fire nozzles and water and air-foam protection systems. She had a small salon and two engine rooms with standard M-400 "rocket" diesel engines - one was running, the second was pumping. The firing range of fire nozzles reached 90 m. The last of these ships (there were only a few of them built) worked until 2003, during rescue operation in the Baltic was seriously damaged and was decommissioned, and in 2011 it was repaired and installed on the territory of the training base of the Ministry of Emergency Situations in St. Petersburg as a museum exhibit. True, outsiders are not allowed there, unfortunately.
For the creation of the "Rocket" in 1958, the Krasnoye Sormovo plant received the Grand Gold Medal of the international jury of the World Industrial Exhibition in Brussels. But Rostislav Alekseev, of course, did not stop there. Incredibly hard-working, very demanding both to himself and to his associates, he continued to work, giving out one new winged vessel a year: in 1958, the six-seater crew boat Volga was launched, in 1959 - the lake Meteor , already twice as large as the "Rocket", in 1960 - the sea ship "Kometa" and "Sputnik", carrying up to 300 (!) Passengers, in 1961 - the sea "Whirlwind" for 260 passengers, in 1962 - the water-jet SPK "Chaika", in 1963 - "Belarus" for small rivers, in 1964 - gas turbine "Petrel". In parallel, work was underway to create ekranoplans and dynamic hovercraft - also the first in the world, like the Rocket once ... But this, as they say, is a completely different story ...
