Rostislav Evgenievich Alekseev was born on December 18, 1916 in the family of a village agronomist. In 1932, Alekseev's family moved to Gorky (now and before revolution - Nizhny Novgorod). In 1935, he entered the Department of Shipbuilding of Gorky Industrial Institute (now - Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University). Alekseev devoted his free time to yachts; he built yachts himself and participated in races. His yacht had a black sail. One time Alekseev was not allowed to race because of the pirate color of his sail, but his yacht, left the start after all other yachts, came to the finish the first. Having read papers of Soviet scientists about foil operations in water flow, Alekseev decided to work on that problem. In October 1941 (during World War II, when the enemy was near Moscow), he presented his Engineer's diploma Planing Hydrofoil Boat. His work was recognized to be at the level of a doctorate dissertation. After graduation, Alekseev was sent to plant Red Sormovo to control the quality of produced tanks T-34. After Stalingrad Battle (a turning-point in the World War II), he was permitted to work on a high-speed boat one hour a day. In 1943, the first hydrofoil was built. In the late 1940's and early 1950's several trial hydrofoils were constructed.

Different hydrofoil hydrodynamic schemes were developed. The problems of motion stability, maneuverability, reliability, safety, and structural strength were solved. However, at that time there was an opinion that creating practically useful hydrofoils is impossible. Many institutions and government organizations gave negative conclusions about Alekseev's work, even demanding to prohibit it. But Alekseev continued working selflessly, developing the schemes for shallow-immersed foils. Only in the mid 1950's, the Ministry of River Fleet decided to order a hydrofoil on Alekseev's project. On August 25, 1957 hydrofoil craft Raketa #1 went to the first route Gorky- Kazan. Her speed was 60 km/hr - three times more than a speed of usual displacement river ships. In the beginning of the 1960's, Alekseev developed the program of creation of high-speed passenger fleet. The following classes were built: Raketa, Meteor, Sputnik, Belarus, Volga, Berevestnik, Vihr, Kometa. In 1962 the leader of the Soviet Union N.S. Hrutshev said: "It is enough to ride on oxes!", and he gave Lenin Prize to Alekseev team.

In the 1960', Alekseev started developing a new type of high-speed vehicles on dynamic air cushion named ekranoplans. The most grandiose experiment in Alekseev's work was designing, building, and testing of 500-ton ekranoplan KM. Several years of testing of KM gave priceless data for construction of future ekranoplans. The next project was the multi-functional Orlyonok. In the end of 1970's, Alekseev was working on the creation of passenger ekranoplans Volga-2 and Raketa-2. Not waiting for finishing of technical documentation Alekseev launched Volga-2 in production, but inevitable misfortune came. On February 9, 1980 Rostislav Evgenievich Alekseev died. In the center of Sormovo on Alekseev Square the monument stands for his honor: one of the first Meteors...

Ivan Ivanovich Matveev devoted his life to the development of Russian high-speed fleet. He graduated from Nikolaev Shipbuilding Institute where he designed and built his first ship, yacht Antarctica. After graduation in 1962, he started working for Feodosia shipyard More. Since 1964, Ivan Ivanovich was with the Central Hydrofoil design Bureau, where he worked together with brilliant hydrofoil designers R.E. Alekseev and N.A. Zaitsev. He went through all stages of designer career: designer of the 3-rd, 2-nd rank, sector chief, ..., since 1988 the Chief Designer of the Project,and since 1989 the Chief Designer of Hydrofoils. Ivan Ivanovich successfully brought to specification characteristics hydrofoil Vihr, which worked for 17 years. He developed and received patents for the new hydrodynamic scheme of a hydrofoil, which was the first foreign patent of the Cetral Hydrofoil Design Bureau realized on Kolkhida-ME (Katran). He participated actively in the development of the 2-nd generation hydrofoils: Vohod-M, Kolkhida, Cyclone, Antares, and hydrofoil sweepers towed by a helicopter.

In 1972, by initiative of Ivan Ivanovich Matveev, the R&D on application of the air lubrication concept for high-speed ships was started. That work led to the creation of new type of marine vehicles, the Air Cavity Ships. Since 1980, he was regularly invited to carry out technical inspections on his hydrofoils working all over the world. The excellent commercial hydrofoil Olympia is the peak of the career of Ivan Ivanovich as the Chief Designer. He is author of 50 inventions and a recepient of several awards. On August 7, 1999, Ivan Ivanovich Matveev died at age 60.