Hydrofoils from a tank factory

Rostislav Alexeyev was a shipbuilding graduate sent to the Krasnoye Sormovo works in Gorky in 1941, where the war had him building tanks. A small hydrofoil laboratory grew up around him, and on 17 April 1951 it became the design bureau that now bears his name. Its Raketa of 1957 was the first commercially produced Soviet passenger hydrofoil; Meteors and Kometas followed, and the bureau says more than 4,000 hydrofoils have been built to its designs.

The Caspian Sea Monster

In the 1960s the bureau turned to the ekranoplan, a craft that flies a few metres above the water on the cushion of ground effect. Its КМ, 92 metres long and weighing 544 tonnes, was moved down the Volga by night under camouflage and first flew on 16 October 1966 with Alexeyev himself at the controls. It was the heaviest aircraft in the world until 1988, and US analysts puzzled over satellite images of it at Kaspiysk.

Missiles skimming the waves

The A-90 Orlyonok transport flew in 1972 and joined the Soviet Navy in 1979. The Lun of 1987, carrying six Moskit anti-ship missiles, is the only ground-effect craft ever deployed as a warship. Alexeyev was hurt testing a new ekranoplan in January 1980 and died weeks later. The bureau designs hydrofoils and ekranoplans still, and is under Western sanctions.

Заводы

• Krasnoye Sormovo · Nizhny Novgorod — Where the bureau began and the KM was built

Люди

• Rostislav Alexeyev · founder and chief designer — 1916–1980; Lenin Prize 1962
• V. Efimov · lead engineer on the KM

Рекорды и первые достижения

• KM: largest and heaviest aircraft in the world, 1966–1988
• Lun: only ground-effect vehicle ever deployed as a warship