Shipbucket

Starting with some (just some) hydroplanes and hovercraft...

One of the most important - basically THE most important - reason for starting development of Soviet hydroplanes in early 1920s were successes of British CMB motor torpedo boats against Soviet Baltic Fleet. Soviet military authorities wanted an equivalent vessels, but lack of engines of comparable weight-to-power ratio then in production in Russia was a major obstacle, therefore some alternative solutions had to be devised. Among them was a number of hydroplane designs (none built). The one below used basically a shortened pontoon with two surplus aircraft engines with propellers (power output of 450 hp) mounted over the hull. This vessel was to carry a single torpedo hanged in the bay in the aft hull, and also a bow machine gun.

Soviet Russia, Zelnovich hydroplane torpedo cutter, 1922



Around 1923 design arrangement with airplane-type propellers was reckoned to be a dead-end as far as motor-torpedo vessels are concerned (mainly due to noise, making any stealthy attack problematic, and due to vulnerability of such installations to enemy fire) and design efforst were concentrated on hydroplanes with screws ("of the English type" - meaning, following the overall pattern of Thornycroft CMB's). But before these works bore fruit in the form of TsAGI-designed ANT-3 Pervenets, the design bureau of Baltiyski Zavod shipyard presented a design of small torpedo hydroplane (displacement 9,5 tons) with hull quite closely resembling CMB but still with 2 propellers on pylons placed side-by-side in front of the bridge and with 2 Liberty engines hidden in hull.

Soviet Russia, Torpedo Cutter of KB BZ, 1922



During the 1931 hydroplane exhibition organized by Avtodor in Moscow, a design (model?) of large 40-seat passenger Avtodor-16 was exhibited. This 15-meter long vessel was powered by 2 400hp M-5 engines, and one of it's most notable features was arrangement of engines and propellers one behind other.

Soviet Union, Avtodor-16, 1931



Main Soviet designer of hovercraft of pre-war era, Vladimir Levkov, oversaw development of around 13 (or more) designs,mostly never-weres, notable of which are:
a 6-engined utility hovercraft, then a very large torpedo-boat-sized craft of unknown name, model of which is/was shown in Russian Central Naval Museum, up to a hovercraft aircraft carrier. After the outbreak of German-Soviet war the development of hovercraft fell to the bottom of list of priorities and it remained so until appearance of such vehicles in the west, although Levkov continued work on hovercraft on a smaller scale, including torpedo-armed
Project 171. Unfortunately sources of these are pretty much nonexistent.


Number of post-war military hovercraft were basis for civilian derivatives, though - as typical with Soviet stuff - sources tend to be poor. In circulation there's a (promotional?) drawing of passenger ferry based on Pr.1205, although for some reason it looks oddly elongated (and such derivative is not mentioned on russianships.info). On the other hand, it's certainly known, that Pr. 1209 had projects of passenger (Pr.12092) and cargo (Pr.12093) variants (besides the export military Pr. 1209E). Unfortunately, I could find only a cutaway sketch of the passenger variant, so the details on the drawing below are somewhat conjectural, and I'm not even certain in which year it was developed.

Soviet Union, Pr. 12092, ca. 1980



Pr. 12061 Murena hovercraft was a basis of several never-were designs, including: Pr. 12061M intended for Mistral amphibious assault ships, Pr. 12061S SAR craft, Pr. 12061P firefighting boat and Pr. 12061GP cargo and passenger craft. Unfortunately, of these I saw drawings only of the first one.

Russia, Pr. 12061M, ca. 2014



Civilian derivatives were planned also for Pr. 12322 Zubr, including Pr. 12325 Maral car-and-passenger ferry and Pr. 12326 car ferry.
(unfortunately, solid information which official designation applies to which project, drawings of which are in internet circulation, is somewhat lacking)

Soviet Union, Pr. 12325 Maral




Sources - same as for my recent Soviet/Russian hydroplane, hydrofoil and hovercraft threads.

(to be continued... eventually...)

Excellent work!

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

The Pr.12061M appears to be much different from the Pr.1206 and unarmed. I knew about it but have not seen it until read this thread. Any idea where the civilian Pr.12062 would be used? Same question also applies to the Pr.12325 Maral.

I like also the Project 171 mentioned above. Somewhat peculiar design.

Pr.12061M actually is armed, but I'm not sure if these are machine guns or grenade launchers in remote-controlled turrets. (when I think of it now, MG's seem more likely)
As for those passenger hovercraft - text information about them is close to nil.