The «Meteor» is a series-built passenger hydrofoil, designed at the Central Design Bureau for Hydrofoils (TsKB po SPK) (Gorky) under the leadership of Rostislav Alekseev. Project 342 was approved on 19 May 1959; series production began in June 1960.[1] The vessels were built at the Sormovo (disambiguation) in Gorky and at the Zelenodolsk Plant named after A. M. Gorky in the Tatar ASSR.[1][2] The «Meteor» became one of the flagship products of the Gorky school of high-speed shipbuilding and was operated for decades on rivers and reservoirs of the USSR and abroad.

Design and technical specifications

The «Meteor» is a twin-screw motor vessel of streamlined, swept-back form with passenger saloons in the bow, midship, and stern sections, an engine room, and a wheelhouse recessed into the deckhouse. The hull and superstructure are made of D16AT duralumin (sheet material) and D16 (profile stock), using AMg and AMts alloys and individual steel parts; the construction is riveted, with a mixed framing system.[1]

The vessel's overall length is 34.6 m, beam 9.5 m, height from the baseline 6.25 m. Hull draft at full displacement is 1.05 m, and about 1.2 m foilborne. Full displacement is 53.4 tonnes. Operating speed is 65 km/h, maximum 70 km/h. Cruising range without refueling is 600 km. Seaworthiness foilborne is ensured in waves up to 1.3 m high, and up to 2 m in displacement mode.[1]

Later production series used two M400 main engines rated at 1100 hp each at 1800 rpm, with remote hydraulic control from the wheelhouse; the first vessels of Project 342 used M50F-3 engines. The propulsion consisted of two five-blade propellers 0.71 m in diameter, with variable pitch and a disk area ratio of 1.1.[1] Passenger capacity depended on seat type and project version: from 116 seats (with reclining seats) to 150 seats (suburban service on first-series vessels).[1]

River Register class «O»; navigation area — freshwater rivers and reservoirs in temperate-climate regions.[1] Variants of Project 342, 342E, and 342U were produced.[3]

History of the design

The project was developed at the Central Design Bureau for Hydrofoils, headed by Rostislav Yevgenyevich Alekseyev (1916–1980). Alekseyev moved to Gorky in 1933, graduated from the shipbuilding faculty of the Zhdanov Industrial Institute, and in 1941 defended his diploma project on a hydrofoil boat. During the war, working at the Krasnoye Sormovo Plant, he studied the hydrodynamics of a shallow-submerged hydrofoil and obtained characteristics later known as the «Alekseyev effect». On this basis, foil systems were created for the entire series of Soviet high-speed passenger vessels, including the «Meteor».[1]

Production vessels and service

The fleet database records several dozen Project 342E vessels built from the late 1960s onward. Among them are vessels registered in Nizhny Novgorod: «Inzhener Zaytsev» (yard No. 883, built October 1968, Gorky) and «Meteor-91» (yard No. 909, built June 1972, also registered Nizhny Novgorod / Gorky).[3] The vessels operated on Volga, the Kama, the Oka, and other rivers; some units were exported to Poland, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Greece.[3]

The Project 342E database lists vessels operated by the company «Dizelzipservis», built at the Zelenodolsk Plant: «Meteor-137», «Meteor-192», «Meteor-228».[2] Some vessels underwent modernization in the 2010s to continue operating on regional routes.[2]

Sources

  1. spkfleet.ru — meteor (archive)
  2. korabel.ru — Project 342E, Meteor Vessel Hydrofoil (specifications, designer) (archive)
  3. fleetphoto.ru — Meteor type, Project 342E (archive)