Raketa (hydrofoil)
Raketa (Russian: Раке́та, Rocket) was the first type of hydrofoil boats commercially produced in the Soviet Union. They were manufactured from 1957 until the early 1970s. The chief designer was Rostislav Alexeyev and the project 340 vessels had been planned already in the late 1940s.
Raketa-234 on the Volga River, 2004 | |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Builders | Krasnoye Sormovo, Sormovo, Nizhny Novgorod |
| Built | 1957–1970s |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Hydrofoil riverboat |
| Displacement | 25 230 |
| Length | 26.9 m (88 ft 3 in) |
| Beam | 5 m (16 ft 5 in) |
| Draft |
|
| Propulsion | 900–1,000 hp (671–746 kW) (depending on the model), propeller |
| Speed |
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| Capacity | 64 or 66 passengers (depending on the model) |
The first model, Raketa-1, was built by Krasnoye Sormovo (Красное Сормово) shipbuilding plant in Sormovo, Nizhny Novgorod (Нижний Новгород). On its maiden voyage, on 25 August 1957, it carried 30 passengers from Nizhny Novgorod to Kazan (420 km) in seven hours.
Raketa boats were soon in wide commercial service on the Volga River and elsewhere in the Soviet Union. To this day, the name is often used generically in Russian for all hydrofoil river boats. Later designs include the Meteor and Kometa types, among many others.
There were several versions of project 340 vessels: project 340 (проект 340), project 340E (проект 340Э) and project 340ME (проект 340МЕ).