Raketa hydrofoil ship 3D model

Raketa was the first type of hydrofoil boats commercially produced in the Soviet Union. First planned in the late 1940s as project 340 by chief designer Rostislav Alexeyev, the vessels were manufactured from 1957 until the early 1970s.

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.