Alekseev hydrofoils. Rostislav Alekseev: how a Soviet designer became a victim of his own invention

“I firmly believe that the day is not far off when winged ships will develop truly space speeds". These words belong to the chief designer of high-speed vessels, laureate of the Lenin and State Prizes, Dr. technical sciences Rostislav Evgenievich Alekseev.

In his autobiography, dated 1940, it is written: “I was born on December 19, 1916 in the family of Alekseev Evgeny Kuzmich, a rural agronomist. Mother - Alekseeva Serafima Pavlovna was a rural teacher. Born in Novozybkov, Oryol region. There he went to study at the elementary school in the city of Novozybkov.

In 1930 he lived in Nizhny Tagil Sverdlovsk region. He worked at a local radio center as a radio equipment repairman and studied at the FZU from 1930 to 1933.

In 1933, he entered the Gorky Evening Workers' Faculty, working at the same time as a draftsman and artist in various institutions.

In 1935 he entered the Gorky industrial institute named after Zhdanov at the shipbuilding faculty. At the same time he worked as an artist and draftsman. From 1938 to 1940 he worked as a sailing coach. Performed at the institute community service: for the holidays he did decorations, was a member of the board of the sports club. In 1939-1940 he was the chairman of the Gorky city sailing section...”.

Everyone said about Rostislav then that he was not just an athlete and sails on a yacht, he “walks with his head”, calculating how to catch the wind with his sail. And the Volgarians, stingy with praise, called him Admiral.

IN family archive Alekseev, a sheet with a graphological examination of Rostislav's handwriting, when he was twenty years old, has been preserved. According to the examination, the character traits of the future chief designer were: independence, a tendency to do everything as he thinks, the desire to overcome obstacles, poise, regularity in business, honesty, a combination of moral and physical strength, propensity to work with technology. It is very curious that each of these qualities was confirmed throughout his subsequent life. He inherited many of them from his parents.

Evgeny Kuzmich Alekseev, Rostislav's father, worked fruitfully in science, was the first director of the Novozybkov Experimental Station. / And although there were many difficult trials on the way to recognition of the future professor, he overcame difficult circumstances with perseverance and courage, managed to prove the importance of his work for agronomy /.

People who knew the Alekseev family said that Rostislav, at the age of six or nine, loved to make boats and launch them along the Iput River.
How much water has flown under the bridge over these decades... And Novozybkov residents remember their countrymen Alekseevs, they remember the house in which, besides Rostislav, there were three more children: his brother Anatoly, sisters Galina and Margarita. Their mother, a teacher, instilled in the children a love of music, painting, taught to see the beauty of life in everything. These qualities have always helped the young designer in his discoveries. How could it be possible to build the first hydrofoil boat in 1943 without imagination and inspiration? The inspiration of a young scientist striving for a great goal made it possible in 1946 to create another sample of a speed boat, which reached a record for that time, having covered 87 kilometers per hour. This achievement held for almost twenty years.

There was always a certain strong field around Alekseev: communication with him aroused creative thoughts. Next to him, the most ordinary designer began to believe in himself, in his abilities. He never rushed and never pushed, he infected with his example, his amazing work capacity.
1957 Motor ship "Rocket" - the first-born of Alekseev's cruise ships. During the days of the World Festival of Youth and Students on the Moscow River, this ship opened a parade of ships. Bouquets of flowers flew into the river, over which a snow-white miracle swept. The novelty was highly appreciated. 1982 marked a quarter of a century since the first flight of Rocket-1. The fact speaks for itself: a durable, well-functioning, reliable vessel was designed by our fellow countryman.

At present, about 1,400 high-speed hydrofoil ships have been built and operated in the world. Eight out of every ten are Alekseev's designs. Among them are “Rocket”, then “Meteor”, “Sputnik”, “Belarus”, “Seagull”, “Petrel”, “Volga”, “Comet” and “Whirlwind”.

Looking ahead for many years chief designer. He perfectly understood that time works for us, but it will not work for us... The development of the draft design of the motor ship “Lastochka” has already been completed. The Comet will be replaced by the Albatross. Instead of the boat "Volga" created "dolphin". The creation of the “Cyclone” is being completed, the “Meteor” is giving way to the “Zenith”. For shallow rivers, the project of the ship "Polesie" will be developed. But R.E. Alekseev did not manage to carry out his plans.
An English technical journal published an article a year after the death of the chief designer. “Among the outstanding qualities of Mr. Alekseev,” it says, “were his great sense of purpose and calm perseverance in solving the most difficult problems of high-speed shipbuilding. He enjoyed great prestige among close colleagues, as well as great respect for the Soviet shipbuilding and navigation community as a whole.” Recognition of his merits in the world is the fact that the portrait of Rostislav Evgenievich Alekseev is currently placed in the National Gallery prominent people 20th century US Congress in Washington.
Compatriots honor the memory of the chief designer. A square in the city of Nizhny Novgorod is named after him. One of the Meteors, which has served its age, is installed on it, where a museum of the history of the Soviet high-speed fleet is opened. There is a street named after Alekseev in the city of Novozybkov, in his homeland.
Speaking at a rally dedicated to the assignment of the name “Designer Alekseev” to the ship “Meteor-161”, the famous river captain V.G. This is the recognition of his great merits in the development of domestic water transport, a kind of admiral's honor.

Twice in my life Rostislav Evgenievich ALEKSEEV (December 18, 1916, Novozybkov, Oryol province. (now the Bryansk region) - 02/09/1980, Gorky) turned the idea of ​​​​humanity about the speed on the water.

First he invented hydrofoil ship.

After the first such ship, a whole high-speed fleet appeared - hydrofoil ships Meteor, Kometa, Volga, Sputnik, Voskhod, Burevestnik, developed by the chief designer Alekseev.

The second revolutionary step steel ekranoplans - aircraft flying over water at aviation speeds, while remaining safe and economical, like a motor ship.

Thanks to Alekseev, the word "ekranoplan" is considered Russian all over the world. He created the Central Design Bureau for hydrofoils.

5 thousand people of his team according to the principle " New Year- a new steamship" released new models of ships every year. Many of them have no analogues so far. Alekseev managed to do in his life as much as humanity could not do in the entire history of shipping and navigation.

He raised the ships on wings, and then taught them to fly. Thanks to Alekseev's talent, he is still in ekranoplans we were ahead of the world by 20-30 years.

The world's first ekranoplan KM designed by Alekseev, the largest aircraft for that time, was launched in 1966. The length of the ekranoplan is more than 100 m, the wingspan is 40 m, it weighed almost 500 tons, and 10 turbojet engines with a thrust of more than 13 t each accelerated it to a speed of 500 km / h.

The Americans, for its impressive size, called it the "Caspian Monster", interpreting the abbreviation KM (dummy ship).

The world's first ekranoplan amphibious assault ship "Eaglet" designed by Alekseev was adopted by the Navy in 1979. The ship became the first in the newly formed division of ekranoplan ships.

At the US Library of Congress portrait gallery eminent figures world, who made the greatest contribution to the development of mankind in the twentieth century, there is a portrait of R. E. Alekseev.

In Russia, a hydrofoil vessel, a square in Nizhny Novgorod, and an NGO founded by him are named after him.

Lit .: Karpenko V.F. Designer Alekseev. - N. Novgorod, 2010.

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The world's first serial hydrofoil ship "Rocket", rushing at a speed of 70 km / h at the then usual ship speed of 25 km / h, was invented and created in Nizhny Novgorod by the brilliant Russian shipbuilder Rostislav Evgenievich ALEKSEEV - Chief designer of hydrofoil ships. The first flight Gorky-Kazan took place on August 25, 1957. Alekseev twice in his life turned the idea of ​​​​humanity about speed on water. The second revolution is the creation of ekranoplanes.

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The world's first ekranoplan KM designed by R. E. Alekseev (ekranoplans) - the largest aircraft for that time was launched on June 22, 1966. The length of the ekranoplan is more than 100 m, the wingspan is 40 m, the weight is almost 500 tons; 10 turbojet engines with a thrust of more than 13 tons each time435 great Russian achievements drove it to a speed of 500 km / h. The Americans for its impressive size called it "the monster of the Caspian Sea."

According to the bookAlexandra Petsko „ IN great R Russian Dachievement.” Tag -

Alekseev Rostislav Evgenievich

Designer of hydrofoils and ekranoplans
Laureate of the State Prize (1951)
Laureate of the Lenin Prize (1962)

Rostislav Alekseev was born on December 18, 1916 in the city of Novozybkov, Chernihiv province (now Bryansk region), in the family of a teacher and an agronomist.

Rostislav's parents had two sons and two daughters. Alekseev's children were brought up according to an unusual system. “Now it is customary to call such a technique Japanese,” said Tatyana Rostislavovna Alekseeva, the designer’s daughter. - The children were not forbidden anything, they were not put under any pressure. Once, my father and brother Tolya “designed” a punt boat. But on the "tests" she turned over, and the boys ended up in the water. How would the average father react in such a situation? I would give the children a beating and forbid them to approach the river. And Evgeny Kuzmich took the guys to a familiar fisherman and asked him to help the guys design the “correct” boat, and at the same time he would teach her how to drive it. Or another example. Rostik dreamed of a horse. And when he was bought boots, he ran to the stable: to exchange shoes for a horse. But the parents figured out how to "calm down" the child. They just sent him out into the night with the shepherds several times! The boy had seen enough of his favorite animals there and ... burned out.

In 1933, the Alekseev family moved to Gorky, where Rostislav went to study at the Gorky evening workers' faculty, while working as a draftsman and artist in various institutions. Everyone in the Alekseev family was good at drawing, including Rostislav, but he liked drawing yachts and ships most of all. And in 1935, Alekseev entered the Gorky Industrial Institute named after Zhdanov (now the Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University named after R.E. Alekseev) at the shipbuilding faculty (Department of Marine and Aviation Engineering). Having entered the institute, Alekseev managed to study in parallel at the art school. There, in Gorky, Alekseev met future wife Marina, who was a year younger than him and studied at the Faculty of Chemistry. In the fourth year, a capable student was transferred to the Leningrad Naval Academy. But Rostislav was expelled from there a year later - the future designer did not pass higher mathematics.

In fact, my father, of course, knew mathematics, ”said Tatyana Rostislavovna. - The background here was different. A few years earlier, he had found an old revolver in some attic and hid it in the stove. Then, when the elder Alekseevs with their three children moved to Moscow, their apartment on Bolshaya Pecherskaya went to other people. What was their shock when they found a gun in the oven! Of course, they immediately told where to go. And as a punishment, the father was "cut off" by higher mathematics!

24-year-old Rostislav Alekseev returned to Gorky and married Marina. It happened two weeks before the war - June 6, 1941. The young man did not have his own housing, and he and his wife settled with their mother-in-law, in a house on Ulyanov Street. First two years life together Rostislav and Marina were overshadowed tragic events. One after the other, two children died: one - in childbirth, the second - from congenital heart disease. Later, Rostislav and Marina had a son and a daughter, whom they named Evgeny and Tatyana.

October 1, 1941 Alekseev defended his thesis "Hydrofoil glider", and he was awarded the title of shipbuilding engineer. After the defense, the young engineer was sent to the Krasnoye Sormovo plant, where from 1941 to 1943 he worked as a control master for the production of tanks. His first rationalization proposals also appeared there: a special device for igniting Molotov cocktails and a jet-injection engine for high-speed torpedo boats.

In 1942, Alekseev was allocated resources to carry out work on the creation of hydrofoil combat boats. His Central Design Bureau for Hydrofoils (TsKB for SPK) began its journey with an old barn and three assistants - this is how the shipbuilding department of the Navy believed in the original idea of ​​\u200b\u200bAlekseev. As a result, in the fall of 1943, Alekseev launched the first model of the A-4 hydrofoil vessel in the factory harbor. But Alekseev's boat did not have time to take part in the hostilities. However, the models he created showed that the idea can be successfully implemented.

And already in 1948, the 123-BIS torpedo boat was tested in Sevastopol. From 1949 to 1951, Alekseev's bureau continued to work on the creation of hydrofoil torpedo boats. And in 1951, Alekseev and his assistants were awarded the State Prize for the development and creation of hydrofoils.

At the party dedicated to the high award, dad's friends brought a cake on which "Glory to Glory!" was written in cream. and ... a box, - the daughter of the designer recalled. “The most accurate measuring device is located there,” his colleagues told him. We puzzled for a long time about what was there, and when we opened it, a cat named Atom jumped out! In the Central Design Bureau, it was decided to be the first to launch a cat on a new ship. The designers believe that the animal will always fall on the place where there are some flaws and malfunctions.

Alekseev's most important acquisition with premium money was the Pobeda car, which replaced the Tatra assembled by himself in the Alekseevs' garage. And before the "Tatra" there was a "Volkswagen" - that's how Rostislav Evgenievich called these cars, assembled by him from parts found in a landfill in Sormov. Volkswagen had a corresponding nickname: KDF - cardboard, wood, plywood.

But it all started with a bicycle, - the designer's daughter recalled. - to war public transport I didn’t go, but my father had to somehow get from the upper part to Krasnoe Sormovo. He made himself a bicycle, but soon it exploded, scalding his face. hot water.

After that, Alekseev left cycling and enrolled in a sports motorcycle club, where he was given a trophy Harley. On it he rode the first post-war years until he assembled a Volkswagen. It so happened that it was difficult for Alekseev to retire to the Central Design Bureau, and the young designer made up for the time lost during the day at home. And since he did not have an office, he worked wherever he had to. He could work at a table in the living room or at a workbench in the hallway. He had a small machine at home, on which Rostislav sawed out models.

He could do almost everything with his hands! - said Tatyana Alekseeva. - Could work on a lathe, possessed locksmith skills. The fact is that grandfather Yevgeny Kuzmich organized a workshop for children, and the boys disappeared there for days on end. Dad was not even six when he made a steam locomotive and a typewriter. And then, even before entering the institute, my father worked as a mechanic at a radio assembly plant in Nizhny Tagil. Rostislav Evgenievich did not demand that his family create any special atmosphere for him: When he worked, we continued to live our lives. It happened, and they made noise, and distracted ... But he did not get angry.

But no matter how much Alekseev was fascinated by creativity, he never stayed up after midnight. All my life I followed a strict regimen: no later than 23.00 - lights out and early - at 5-5.30 - rise. He loved beautiful things and delicious food. “As a designer, an artist, he had good taste,” said Tatyana Rostislavovna. He had a keen sense of where to put what. His favorite style was elegant and sporty.

In 1954, the research hydrolaboratory of the Krasnoye Sormovo plant became a branch of TsKB-19. The Ministry became interested in the work of the team headed by Alekseev river fleet, and soon Alekseev was allocated funding for the construction of the first passenger hydrofoil ship "Rocket" - for 66 people. Its construction began in the summer of 1956, and in the summer of 1957 Alekseev presented the Raketa to the judgment of the world community, effectively bringing the ship under its own power to Moscow in the days International Festival youth and students.

Since 1958, the history of a new class of ships began - Meteors, which had greater seaworthiness than the Rocket, which created conditions for their use on lakes and for sailing along the sea coast. The first "Meteor" - for 130 people was launched in October 1959.

TsKB-19 also created the Volga, Kometa, Sputnik, Burevestnik and Voskhod boats. All these high-speed hydrofoils were mass-produced. Alekseev often said that the criterion of truth for an engineer is the serial production of his product. Every year there is a new project. In 1961, ten employees led by Alekseev received the Lenin Prize for the creation of a new vehicle. So in eight years since 1956, a high-speed fleet of Russia was created.

Alekseev himself was under the patronage of Nikita Khrushchev after the government was swept away on the Meteor. Khrushchev gave the green light to all undertakings of the designer, and two thousand people under the leadership of Alekseev for 15 years annually designed, built and tested 15-20 models.

My father traveled with great pleasure on ships of his own invention, - said Tatyana Rostislavovna. - He even had a certificate of honorary captain of hydrofoils. But due to the fact that the father sought to manage all his ships, he often had friction with his superiors. They said that Alekseev did not trust anyone. The Pope explained this by saying that he could not entrust anyone with the management of the ship until he personally made sure that it would not throw out any unpleasant surprises. It was not arrogance that guided him, but a reluctance to put people at risk. In 1966, Rostislav Evgenievich, under a false name and on a "left" passport (and in those years even the photograph of the Chief was classified!) was sent to England to an exhibition of shipbuilding achievements. There, the designer wanted to “steer” one hovercraft, but they looked at him as a big joker. Then Alekseev asked to be allowed to put his hands on the hands of the driver. This was enough for him to understand how to navigate the ship.

The first ideas for using the screen effect came to Alekseev in the late 1950s. In his early designs of hydrofoils, the features of ekranoplans were already manifested. The reason for Alekseev's appeal to screen flight is simple. Speed ​​is main indicator economy of hydrofoils. But a powerful obstacle stood in the way of a further increase in speed - hydrofoil cavitation. Before Alekseev, attempts to solve this problem were reduced to an increase in speed of 10-15 kilometers. This did not suit Alekseev, and he concentrated all his main forces on ekranoplanes.

In 1961, the first self-propelled manned model Alekseev SM-1 entered the ice of the Trotsa River.

In the article “Alekseev worked miracles” in 1998, it was written: “Having barely convinced of the ability of this apparatus (SM-1) to use the screen effect and move steadily above the surface, he invites the Deputy Presovmin to the test base. It was decided to finance work on ekranoplanes, Navy gave out technical task for the design and construction of the "ekranoplan ship" KM. The chief designer convinced and the customer agreed that the best application new ship(as the sailors called it by many years of tradition) will find it as an anti-submarine one.

At the beginning of 1960, this extensive experiment was launched, and in 1962, work began at the Central Design Bureau on the creation of the KM ekranoplan for the Navy, and in 1964, on the T-1 ekranoplan project for the airborne troops. The first was supposed to fly at altitudes of several meters, and the second - up to an altitude of 7500 meters.

Since the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bbuilding ekranoplanes caused bewilderment "at the top", Alekseev had spiteful critics. At one time, Rostislav Evgenievich persuaded several designers from Zelenodolsk to go to his Central Design Bureau. And later, their former director became the Minister of Industry and forced former subordinates to regularly submit “information” about Alekseev to the ministry. Some of them were not shy, and wrote that Alekseev imagined himself a slave owner, and that he had ten apartments. As a result, in 1965, Rostislav Alekseev was removed from his post as chief designer.

Father was summoned to Moscow and bombarded with absurd accusations. He himself did not understand what he was accused of, - Tatyana Rostislavovna recalled. - The next morning after returning from Moscow, we went with him to the Central Clinical Hospital. He enters his office, and two hours later he appears from there together with some man and announces to the team: “Let me introduce you to the new chief designer and general director Valery Vasilyevich Ikonnikov.” Silent scene. It turns out that when he entered his office in the morning, Ikonnikov was already sitting at his desk!

Alekseev was appointed chief designer of the ekranoplan direction, and on June 22, 1966, the KM ekranoplan, the largest aircraft on earth for its time, was launched. When American reconnaissance satellites discovered a ship of unknown design in the Caspian Sea, analysis of the photographs showed that it, like an airplane, was moving at high speed, while its flight was above the water itself. The Pentagon and NASA thought it was a technical gamble. Only a few experts said that the Soviets created a new and very effective type of weapon - ekranoplanes.

The unknown aircraft received the nickname "Caspian monster" from the American side. After the “monster” was discovered by an American spy satellite, the American journal “Jane Intelligence Review” wrote: “... Tests of a giant ekranoplan with a speed of 200 knots continue in the Caspian Sea. It is believed that this apparatus was built at the Krasnoye Sormovo plant. It is probably 400 feet long and capable of carrying 800-900 fully armed soldiers. The wings of this experimental craft are believed to provide sufficient lift to climb to a cruising altitude of approximately 30 feet. Apparently, the device can work in arctic conditions.

It was the height of the tests, and they began a few years earlier, when Alekseev decided to check how the ekranoplan kept afloat, and let his offspring “run” a little along the Volga before going to sea. The test site was the island of Vely, which was clearly visible from the Volga slope. Specialists came up with a legend - the plane crashed, and they are trying to pull it out of the water. When the tests continued, another legend came into play: engines for new ships were being tested.

Then the tests moved to the Caspian Sea to the deserted island of Chechen, where the test base was located. Admiral Gorshkov, commander Soviet Navy, in his book “The Sea Power of the State”, published in 1976, wrote: “The creation of ships with dynamic principle maintenance has already become a reality. There is no doubt that the mass appearance of such ships in the fleets will increase their combat ability, surface forces will be able to more successfully solve combat missions and acquire completely new qualities. The strictest conditions of secrecy did not allow him to say that the Soviet fleet already possessed such a ship at that time. The state program provided for the construction of 100 amphibious ekranoplanes.

While Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Gorshkov and Minister of Defense of the USSR Ustinov were alive, designer Alekseev was impregnable, despite any disputes that did not subside around ekranoplanes. Due to the complexity of operation, pilots and sailors did not want to have them in their arsenal. Cons in the treasury of ekranoplans added emergencies that happened from time to time. In 1975, in one of the flights, when a large commission headed by the Minister of Shipbuilding was on board the ekranoplan, the pilot made a landing error. The car hit the wave hard. Bulkheads and hull burst. The chief designer took control and brought the ekranoplan to the base, which was 40 kilometers away.

When the ekranoplan reached the shore, it turned out that he did not have enough stern and tail. The accident showed the survivability of the ship, but the organizational conclusions were harsh: Rostislav Alekseev, by order of the Minister of the Shipbuilding Industry of the USSR Boris Butoma, dissatisfied with the inventor, due to the fact that Alekseev had previously turned to Khrushchev, ignoring Butoma's opinion, he was removed from the post of chief designer and head of the Central Design Bureau, demoted to the head of the department, and then to the head of the promising sector.

The 70s were especially difficult for my father, Tatyana Rostislavovna recalled. - In 1974, an accident occurred during a test in the Caspian Sea. The commission accepted "Eaglet". And during the transitional regime, the aft part of the ekranoplan seemed to stick to the water, and when the device took off, the “tail” fell off. Father immediately sat in the pilot's seat and turned the engines on full power and thus created an air cushion under the wings. On this pillow he returned to base. If he had not orientated himself in the situation so quickly, the ekranoplan could have swallowed water and sunk ... Aviation workers said that they give a Hero for such things, but they recouped their father to the fullest. In the summer of 1975, Alekseev was transferred to ordinary designers. Someone hinted that it would be nice to appoint him head of the advanced design department, but the authorities waved their hands. The position was offered to Boleslav Zobnin. He did not want to cross the path of a friend, but Alekseev convinced him that it would be better for the common cause if he agreed. Unfortunately, Zobnin did not lead the department for long. In 1978 best friend Alekseev died ... Moreover, Rostislav Evgenievich was forbidden to attend the tests of his own cars! But he still secretly flew to Kaspiysk. Fortunately, the pilot Alexei Mitusov, devoted to him, despite possible troubles, took him on board. Father was demoted and demoted... and he acted like nothing was happening. Many were irritated by the dignity with which he carried himself. Some stopped greeting him, and yesterday’s “friends” said: “Well, now that Alekseev is gone, we will design this!” But time passed, and no one gushed with brilliant ideas. And then the same people sang something else: “What do you want from us? Alekseev is a genius, but who are we? Mere mortals...".

During these years, the disgraced designer was looking for distractions in nature. In solitude, I walked for a long time in the forest, picking mushrooms. Contact with people brought to naught. The worst thing for him was that the brain suddenly stopped generating new ideas, - recalled Alekseev's daughter. - Apparently, he found some kind of stupor. Then he retired to the base in Chkalovsk, again began to paint. And the inspiration is back! Last years father was passionate about the development of the second generation ekranoplan.

But when testing a model of a new passenger ekranoplan, which was supposed to be completed by the Moscow Olympics-80, Rostislav Alekseev overstrained himself during launching. In January, he tested the latest ekranoplan model in Chkalovsk. His assistants cleared the ice blockage and said that the model could be released. But Alekseev did not hear, and took on the entire burden of the 800-kilogram apparatus.

At first, the 63-year-old designer did not feel any signs of trouble, went after the tests to the Central Design Bureau, and worked all day. And in the evening he complained to his family about pain in his side. Alekseev was immediately admitted to hospital No. 3 on the Verkhne-Volzhskaya embankment. Professors Kolokoltsev and Korolev found it difficult to diagnose.

Father spent Thursday and Friday on his feet, Tatyana Rostislavovna recalled. - And on Saturday morning I got out of bed and lost consciousness. He was scheduled for emergency surgery. It turned out that during those two days when Alekseev felt relatively well, peritonitis developed in his body - inflammation of the peritoneum, a life-threatening condition. When the constructor hit operating table the process was in full swing. The first intervention was followed by three more operations. As Professor Kolokoltsev later explained to me, due to dysentery suffered in childhood, an adhesion formed in my father in some part of the intestine. And this indirectly contributed to the torsion of the intestines. In general, my father did not worry about his health. Twice he was sent to a sanatorium. And twice he escaped from there ... Rostislav Evgenievich died not from peritonitis, but from a complication caused by it.

Tatyana Alekseeva said: “The very next day after the funeral, on February 13, I went to Chkalovsk to collect things in my father’s office apartment. And I found two bosses there, who snatched from each other the drawings made by their father! And on February 14, I flew to Kaspiysk and found a complete rout in the apartment. All things were piled in a heap in the middle of the room, and the drawings and notes of the father were torn to small pieces. Moreover, the one who did this did not open the door with a key, but entered the apartment through the window, like a thief ... "

Rostislav Evgenievich Alekseev lived three design lives. In the first, he created a series of hydrofoils. In the second - he was engaged in hovercraft. He devoted his third life to ekranolet. All the ideas he worked on were in the air for a long time. He embodied them in real designs - the first.

What was the scope of Alekseev's work can be judged from the next episode. In the winter of 1976-1977, a commission for the revision of the model heritage worked at the Gorky branch. The commission had to consider the feasibility of further storage of a large number of secret ekranoplan models on the territory of the branch.

The branch was a metal warehouse-hangar with an area of ​​350 square meters. In it, on special metal racks on both sides of the aisle, three or four rows high, there were aerodynamic and towed models of ekranoplanes of various configurations. It was a museum of ideas in 250 models.

In addition, there was a storage room in the administrative building of the boathouse, where about 30 more models were placed. The Commission did not take the trouble to photograph and compile a brief technical description models. In several steps, almost all models, with the exception of 25, were burned on the ice of the Trotsa River. It can be calculated that during a 15-year period, on average, about 15-20 models were designed, built and tested per year, not counting self-propelled manned ones. In the same period, a powerful scientific and experimental base of the Central Design Bureau for the SEC was formed, the design bureau by the mid-70s had turned into a modern research and production enterprise with a unique experimental complex.

By 1980, the Gorky branch of the Central Design Bureau for the SPK on the Trotsa River had two tracks with powerful electric catapults, a portable catapult for water tests, a wind tunnel for testing ekranoplan models, a circular hydro pool, a cavitation tube, several experimental facilities for research on the blowing effect, a significant fleet of powerful towing boats capable of testing models on open water with speeds up to 100-120 km/h, a stand for the study of full-scale power plants, a powerful portal crane with a concrete slip with a lifting capacity of up to 50 tons, a hangar workshop, various workshops, including those for the manufacture of towed models, an airfield with a concrete runway, and a large number of specialized laboratories. By 1980 the base was scientific complex world-class, the best among European scientific centers.

Rostislav Alekseev did not know what fate awaited his creation. The Minister of Defense of the USSR, by order of October 12, 1984, ordered the adoption of ekranoplans into service. It was supposed to build two dozen devices of the "Eaglet" type and create a new landing force on the Baltic Sea. It was supposed to complete this program before the mid-90s, but this did not happen. Only four ready-made ekranoplanes remained in the Caspian as part of the 11th separate air group.

The associates of the creator of the Soviet ekranoplans managed to develop and manufacture in 1985 the combat ekranoplan "Lun", equipped with six anti-ship homing missiles "Moskit". However, he did not go into the series, but in 2002 he was put into service after a long conservation.

American WIG designer Stephen Hooker said: "They were ahead of us by 30 years!".

Rostislav Alekseev was buried in Nizhny Novgorod. In 2007, a film was made about him documentary"Burned Wings. betray the designer.

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Text prepared by Andrey Goncharov

Used materials:

Text of the article "The Star and Death of Rostislav Alekseev", on the website www.kokina.ru
Text of the article "The Caspian monster is the great adventure of Vyacheslav Alekseev", author V. Morozov
Text of the article “Russian Weapons: “Eaglet” - “Caspian Monster”, author V. Fedorov
Site materials www.letopisi.ru
Site materials www.history-of-wars.ru
Site materials www.ankat.ucoz.ru
Wikipedia site materials

Over the years of work, Alekseev created a powerful enterprise with a developed design and testing base and brought up hundreds of people who were passionate about one thing, so the work continued, despite the numerous "spokes in the wheels." At the age of 63, the designer remained a man full of strength, creative energy and healthy scientific curiosity. It seemed that there were all the components of success: talent, intelligence, health, colossal experience. But in 1980 there was unexpected tragedy…

Way to the future

Rostislav Evgenievich Alekseev was born on December 18, 1916 in the provincial town of Novozybkov, Chernihiv province. In the Russian Empire, the son of an agronomist and a teacher from the outback could hardly expect a career as a scientist and, moreover, a leading designer. But history in a certain way disposed of the fate of the country and the boy: after October revolution was born in the fire of the Civil War new power, where, as it is now customary to say, "new social elevators have been launched."

In June 1918, the Council of People's Commissars established the State Industrial Institute in Nizhny Novgorod. It was there that the Alekseev family moved in 1933. Young Rostislav entered the workers' faculty (workers' faculty), where he prepared to enter the university, working as a draftsman in various institutions. Along with this, the boy discovered the ability to draw and entered an art school. 1935 was a turning point in his biography - Rostislav was enrolled in the Gorky Industrial Institute at the shipbuilding department. By the fourth year, a talented and promising student is transferred to Leningrad to study at Naval Academy. However, he was not destined to study for a long time in Northern Palmyra - because of the scandal with the revolver found in his apartment, Rostislav was expelled from the academy, after which he returned to Gorky.

On June 6, 1941, two weeks before the German invasion of the USSR, Rostislav got married, and on October 1 of the same year he defended his thesis, which became a landmark not only in the life of Alekseev, but also in the history of shipbuilding in general. The work, entitled Hydrofoil Glider, was a theoretical development of the design of semi-submersible ships.

From war to peace

Despite the fact that the war was raging with might and main, the young man, being a valuable technical specialist, was sent not to the front, but to the Krasnoye Sormovo plant, where he worked until 1943 as a tank production controller. This is how his “first life” began.

Without breaking away from the daily routine, Alekseev did not leave his passion for ships and inventive activities. During the war years, he proposed a rationalization of the device for igniting Molotov cocktail bottles and developed a jet-inertial engine for rocket boats. At the same time, he constantly bombarded higher authorities with proposals for the introduction of hydrofoil ships, eventually achieving success - in 1942 he was given a room and assistants to carry out preliminary work on this topic. The premises was a barn on the territory of Krasny Sormovo, and the team consisted of three people. This is how the future Central Design Bureau for Hydrofoils (TsKB for SPK) was born.

By the autumn of 1943, observing the regime of the most severe economy of literally everything, the team managed to create an experimental prototype of the A-4 boat, which was launched in the factory harbor. However, it was not possible to bring the revolutionary development to combat use - in 1945 the Great Patriotic War ended. Nevertheless, Alekseev continued to work - in 1948, the 123-bis boat was tested on the Black Sea, for which the team received the State Prize. Thus, the practical applicability and manufacturability of semi-submersible ships was proved.

It is interesting that Alekseev spent the award on the first factory car "Pobeda" in his life. Before that, two others had managed to visit his garage: a Volkswagen and a Tatra, personally assembled by the designer from spare parts from the Krasny Sormovo landfills. The inventor himself called them collectively - "KDF" (cardboard, wood, plywood) with a hint that branded parts in his machines were only the necessary minimum. This craving for manual labor accompanied Alekseev throughout his life. Being a venerable designer, he always tried to go through the entire cycle of creating his devices "from and to", as if putting himself in the place of turners, millers, foundry workers and other workers.

The triumph of the glider

In 1954, Alekseev's research hydrolab became part of TsKB-19, and the Ministry of the River Fleet became interested in its work. The team received a technical assignment for the development of a medium-capacity river ship (up to 66 passengers). The project was named "Rocket". By 1957, the theoretical part of the work was completed, the project was transferred to the shipyard, and in next year Alekseev successfully piloted the world's first hydrofoil through the canal system from Gorky to Moscow (this was timed to coincide with the International Youth Festival in Moscow).

Alekseev carried out public tests of the Rocket with great pomp and understanding, as they would say today, of marketing - among the first thirty passengers was the country's chief "rocket pilot" Sergei Korolev, and the ship was piloted by Hero Soviet Union Mikhail Devyatayev, who escaped from Nazi captivity in a stolen bomber during the war years. During the tests, the "Rocket" developed a hurricane speed for a passenger ship of 70 km / h, and the distance from Gorky to Kazan (420 km) was covered in just six hours.

The undoubted success of the "Rocket" feat high authorities to its further development. TsKB-19 begins the development of a ship of increased capacity and seaworthiness - the famous Meteor has become a new project. The duralumin hull is 34 meters long, graceful contours, more suitable for an aircraft than a ship, a speed of 65 km / h and from 78 to 123 passengers with three crew members - all this guaranteed the Meteor a resounding success by the time the first sample appeared in 1959 year.

It went into the Meteor series in 1961 and was produced until 1991 - in total, more than 400 cars went on the water. "Rockets" and "Meteors" became the basis of high-speed river and coastal maritime transport USSR, being exported to many countries of the world.

bureaucratic fiasco

It must be said that this "third life" was far from permanent success. The fact is that the topic of the ekranoplan was outside the field where Alekseev was an invincible authority - outside shipbuilding in the literal sense. The "aviators", who already had enough "headaches", were skeptical about the idea, and it was only possible to fully implement it with the close cooperation of the two departments. Unfortunately, Alekseev did not succeed in this - very soon interdepartmental conflicts began, it came to denunciations and the use of administrative resources in discussions. But despite all the bureaucratic difficulties, the "Maket Ship" nevertheless descended into the waters of the Caspian Sea, where it was photographed by an American spy satellite. The data received by the satellite caused shock among the NATO military. Here is what the Jane Intelligence Review wrote:

«... Testing of a giant ekranoplan with a speed of 200 knots continues in the Caspian Sea. It is believed that this apparatus was built at the Krasnoye Sormovo plant. It is probably 400 feet long and capable of carrying 800-900 fully armed soldiers. The wings of this experimental craft are believed to provide sufficient lift to climb to a cruising altitude of approximately 30 feet. Apparently, the device can work in arctic conditions».

Fear turned out to have very large eyes - in fact, the characteristics of the first ekranoplan were much more modest. And yet, the "Caspian Monster" was impressive - its length was 92 meters, takeoff weight - 544 tons, maximum speed - 50 km / h. Prior to the creation of the colossal An-225 Mriya aircraft capable of lifting the Buran space shuttle, KM remained the largest aircraft in the world.

On its basis, the landing ekranoplan "Eaglet" and the strike ekranoplan "Lun" were created (already after the death of the designer). The accident of the ekranoplan "Eaglet" during the tests in 1974, during which Alekseev personally "pulled out" a car that had lost its tail to the base, first led to his removal from the post of head of the Central Design Bureau, and then from the post of head of the sector. However, over the years of work, Alekseev created a powerful enterprise with a developed design and testing base and brought up hundreds of people who were passionate about one thing, so the work continued, despite the numerous "spokes in the wheels."

Rostislav Alekseev himself did not lose heart and was engaged in painting, as well as designing a second-generation ekranoplan. At the age of 63, the designer remained a man full of strength, creative energy and healthy scientific curiosity. It seemed that there were all the components of success: talent, intelligence, health, colossal experience. But in 1980, an unexpected tragedy struck. Rostislav Alekseev was an extremely strong man, and he was not used to measuring his strength. January 1980 came, and the Central Design Bureau was supposed to present a working model of a passenger ekranoplan for the Moscow Olympics. It was supposed to be tested at a base in Chkalovsk (Gorky region). Several people rolled out the car from the hangar, and Alekseev was among them. The assistants rushed to clear the snow that blocked the path to the river, and when the road cleared, someone shouted: “Let go!” Being already an elderly man, Alekseev did not hear the cry, did not remove his hand, and the whole weight of the apparatus fell on him. The injury seemed not serious, and, as they say, nothing foreshadowed trouble, but soon the designer had to be hospitalized with acute pain. It turned out that Alekseev simply overstrained himself - this led to peritonitis and his imminent death.

Rostislav Alekseev was not destined to know that the brainchild of his "third life" in 1984 was adopted by the Soviet Navy. Ekranoplans "Eaglet", and then "Lun" were to be built in a series of up to one hundred and twenty copies, but the "eagles" managed to put into operation only four pieces, and the "Lun", released in 1985, remained completely in a single sample . The perestroika that broke out soon and the collapse of the USSR that followed it buried ekranoplans for a long time along with the Buran and many other fantastic developments of Soviet designers. But, as you know, thought is material, and the thought of a genius, like Alekseev, has the hardness of a diamond. Already in our days in Russia, a decision was made to reactivate the ekranoplan projects, and the "eagles" should again take to the wings. What will come of this - time will tell.

Mother is a Russian language teacher in rural school. Father and mother are from the Old Believers. In addition to Rostislav, the following were born in the family: the elder brother Anatoly, a radio engineer, went missing near Moscow in 1941; sister Galina - Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, teacher at the Institute. Bauman; sister Margarita is an architect.

Education

He graduated from elementary school in Novozybkov. In 1930-1933, during his father's exile in Nizhny Tagil, he studied at the FZU, working as a radio equipment repairman at a local radio center. In 1933, after the family moved to Gorky, he entered the Gorky Evening Mechanical Engineering Workers' Faculty. He worked as a draftsman and graphic designer. In 1935 he entered the shipbuilding department (now the Institute transport systems at NSTU). On October 1, 1941, he defended his thesis on the topic “Hydrofoil Glider” before the State Commission and received the title of shipbuilding engineer. Alekseev's reviewer, Professor M. Ya. Alferyev noted:

The diplomat consistently approaches a new type of hydrofoil glider, which he named A-4. He develops this type in several variants, differing from each other in the dimensions and methods of the bow and stern plumage. The diploma holder gives his ship an interesting streamlined shape, displaying not only high seaworthiness, but also the swiftness of the ship, corresponding to a speed of about 100 knots. In the project, all the devices of the glider are well thought out and all the moments of its operation are provided both on calm water and on the surface of an agitated sea. The seaworthiness of the ship is confirmed by hydrodynamic calculations, in the creation of which the student showed great initiative.

In addition, Alferyev pointed out the desirability of further continuation of the topic in order to bring it to practical implementation (the A-4 hydrofoil boat was built by Alekseev in 1943).

Sailing

Alekseev in his "sports autobiography" [ unknown term ] (November 4, 1945) wrote that the love for water and water sports manifested itself in him from the age of 14, even then he built three boats with his own hands; on the Black Sea he went as a cabin boy on a schooner and sailing whaleboats.

At the age of 16, he built his first yacht and trained on it, the second, 5.5-meter sailing dinghy "Pirate", which was also built independently, according to his own drawings in 1935, led him to his first sporting achievements. in Gorky yachts. The "Pirate" had an 11-meter mast and powerful sailing equipment painted black (sails were sewn from patches of multi-colored fabric, which the designer received from housewives while repairing sewing machines). Soon Rostislav was noticed by the Volga yachtsmen, recognized and accepted into the sailing section of the Dynamo on the Oka, and then began to actively engage in sailing, receiving prizes in regattas.

Creation of hydrofoils

After defending his diploma, Alekseev was sent to the Krasnoye Sormovo plant, where from 1943 he worked as a control foreman for the production of T-34 tanks. A few days later, on November 10, 1941, Alekseev sent a report and a draft of his SPK - a submarine fighter to People's Commissar of the Navy N.G. does not differ from those previously tested. Despite this, Alekseev persistently continues experiments, in his spare time chasing new models behind the yacht and working out the design of hydrofoils. In addition, he appeals to the People's Commissariat with a proposal for a new device for igniting Molotov cocktails, the use of propellers built on the jet-injection principle on high-speed torpedo boats.

Soon thesis Alekseev was interested in the chief designer of Krasnoy Sormovo V.V. Krylov and director E.E. Rubinchik. Despite the maximum workload of the plant with the production of tanks, Alekseev is allocated 2-3 hours a day for work on the SEC. In his monograph, Alekseev noted that as a result of experiments in 1941-1942, he was the first to obtain approximate hydrodynamic characteristics of a hydrofoil depending on the depth of its immersion and relative speed, found optimal working immersions, and also confirmed the possibility of ensuring stability when using low-submerged hydrofoils .

After the report on the work done by Alekseev, at the beginning of 1943, under his leadership, the Hydrolaboratory was organized at the plant and the creation of the first double hydrofoil boat (PDA) A-4 began. Initially, the laboratory consisted of a hut on pontoons, frozen into ice in the backwater of the Sormovo plant and the only assistant, a student of locksmith Alexander Nekorin.

In April 1943, Alekseev's first hydrofoil boat was put to the test with a mass of 0.9 tons and an engine power of 25 hp. With. reaches a speed of 30 km / h on the wings. Tests revealed a decrease in wing lift as it approached the water surface and good movement stability at a immersion depth of 15-30% of the wing chord, which became the forerunner of the creation of low-submersible self-regulating hydrofoils, which differ from everything previously developed.

According to the test results, Alekseev is appointed the official head of the Scientific Research HydroLaboratory (NIGL), in which the search for the optimal wing profile and the solution of the associated problems of propulsion, maneuverability, strength, safety reliability, etc., in relation to different conditions operation. The scope of work is expanding, the first test base is being created, the first leading engineers of the future Central Design Bureau are coming to NIGL: Ivan Erlykin and Konstantin Ryabov, Nikolai Zaitsev, Leonid Popov, Boleslav Zobnin, Ivan Shapkin and others, mostly former yachtsmen, familiar to Alekseev from sailing. Most of the issues have to be solved for the first time, since there were very few developments on the SPC in the USSR and in the world at that time, the unsuccessful verdicts of the predecessors also played a negative role in assessing the prospects for the work of the laboratory.

In 1945, the new PDA A-5 was put to the test, with a mass of 1 ton and a power of 72 hp. With. a speed of 85 km/h has been reached. At the end of May 1947, Alekseev and Popov take the A-5 along the Oka to Moscow, where he demonstrates its capabilities to the people's commissariat of the shipbuilding industry. The design bureau receives an order to put a serial project 123 torpedo boat on the wings. The problem was successfully solved, during the tests in the summer of 1948 the boat reached a speed of 110 km / h on the wings with satisfactory stability parameters. The study of the hull contours of high-speed SPCs begins, since the classic planing contours interacted poorly with the wings in transient conditions. Methods are being developed for calculating propellers on lightly submerged high-speed propellers and water jets with axial propeller pumps.

During this period, the work of the laboratory was aimed at the creation of torpedo boats in the interests of the Navy, civil projects are going on an initiative basis, however, thanks to extensive theoretical and experimental research, by the mid-1950s, the main technical problems were solved and profiles of low-submersible wings with high hydrodynamic quality were created, which are used at the SPK to this day.

The team began working on a completely new for that time 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: new boats "Volga", "