1. Rostislav Evgenievich Alexeyev was born on December 18,1916, in Novozybkov, Chernigov Governorate, Russian Empire to an agronomist father and a teacher mother.
13 Facts About Rostislav Alexeyev
1. 2.
Rostislav Alexeyev graduated on October 1,1941, after successfully defending his final thesis on hydrofoils, and was awarded the title of engineer-shipbuilder.
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Rostislav Alexeyev 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.
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Rostislav Alexeyev initially served as a foreman for tank production, but in 1942 was reallocated by the Soviet Navy to developing hydrofoils for combat use.
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Rostislav Alexeyev's 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.
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Rostislav 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.
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Rostislav Alexeyev was chief designer for numerous passenger hydrofoil designs produced at Red Sormovo, including the Meteor, the Kometa, the Sputnik, the Burevestnik, and the Sunrise.
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In 1962, Rostislav Alexeyev began working at the Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau which specialized in the secret development of ground-effect vehicles, named ekranoplans.
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The Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau planned a massive ekranoplan utilizing the "Wing In Ground" effect, and Rostislav Alexeyev was invited to participate in development due to his expertise with hydrofoils.
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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 Rostislav Alexeyev quickly moved on to other ekranoplan projects.
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On January 14,1980, Rostislav Alexeyev was injured in an air crash that occurred while testing a new ekranoplan to be presented at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
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The vehicle lost lift and lowered into the water at high speed, and immediately after the accident Rostislav Alexeyev was removed as chief designer at the Central Hydrofoil Design Bureau and was hospitalized three days later.
13.
Rostislav Alexeyev received numerous prestigious awards, including the Stalin Prize second degree in 1951, the Lenin Prize in 1962, the USSR State Prize in 1984, the Order of the October Revolution, the Order of the Badge of Honour, and the Honoured Inventor of the RSFSR.