Rostislav alexeev biography of christopher

Rostislav Evgenievich Alexeev (, , , , – , , , ) was a designer of highspeed shipbuilding. He invented and designed the world's first s. His work has been compared to that of A.N. Tupolev in and S.P. Korolev in space flight.

Hydrofoil ships

Alexeev was the first to create high speed ships on the so-called low submerged underwater wings, the most popular ones beings passenger ships "Raketa", "Volga", "Meteor", "Kometa", "Burevestnik" with passenger capacity up to persons and cruising speed up to km/h.

Ekranoplans

Alexeev revolutionised the ship-building industry (though in secrecy) by inventing crafts that use ground effect, whereby (in very simple terms) a wing traveling close to the ground is provided with extra lift by the "cushion" of air compressed under it - thereby enabling a combination of greater aircraft weight for less power and/or enhanced fuel economy.

The KM or "korabl-maket", the largest ekranoplan ever built, was one of the first very successful vehicles designed by Alexeev and built by his . The KM was intended as a test platform to examine the possibilities of the "Wing In Ground" (WIG) effect.

The KM, powered by eight Dobryin VD-7 s on the front of the fuselage, and two on the tail for extra thrust during take-off, first took to the air in October During its extensive test career, it was continually modified. The was altered to between 32m and 40m, and the length varied from 92m to m. [ [ KM Specifications] ]

The KM crashed in , apparently due to the pilot ill-advisedly attempting to take off without giving it full . An attempt to recover the leviathan from the depths was thwarted by its vast weight. While the KM programme was ongoing, Alexeev began work on a medium-sized ekranoplan suitable for military transportation duties. Dubbed A "Orlyonok" ("Eaglet"), the tonne, 58 metre long aircraft had its maiden flight in The A boasted two turbojets and one turboprop engine which propelled it to a speed of km/h for 1, km at a cruise altitude of m.

Death & legacy

After the crash of the KM, Soviet military heads used the incident as an excuse to remove Alexeev from the ekranoplan projects. He spent the rest of his life away from scientific work, concentrating mostly on sports. He died in

After the fall of the , the details of Alexeev's work became known to the public and generated a lot of interest from around the world. He is now generally considered as the father of design. Several documentaries have shown details of his work (including the KM), most recently on Russia Today channel on , [ [?id=42&aid= RTV Programme information: Caspian Sea Monster] ]

References

* [ Biography of R.E. Alexeev]
* [ Alexeev's work on Ekranoplan]