A-280-520 “Admiral Kuznetsov”

After the development of very successful hydrofoil Rocket-1 (Раке́та-1), Soviet engineer Rostislav Alexeyev (Ростисла́в Алексе́ев) and his team, were given a task to design a large passenger ship aimed at connecting Soviet city of Samara and Iranian capital Teheran.
On May 1st, 1961, after 4 years of development, the first production-ready prototype went on her maiden voyage. The minimum requirement of 3000 passengers was surpassed by 250, with capability to accommodate 150 Conex-class shipping containers and 250 cars.
The itinerary took the A-280-520, christened “Admiral Kuznetsov”, form Samara via Vladivostok to Caspian Sea, then to Baku and finally to Iranian coastal city of Salman Shahr, 100 km from Teheran. This last leg of the journey was done by rail. It took “Admiral Kuznetsov” just 19 hours to cover the 2250 km distance, with average speed of 75 knots (approx. 140 km/h) and one 2hr stop in Baku. Normal passenger cruising speed was suggested to be around 65 knots.
With the development of jet airliners, this mode of fast passenger transport soon fall into oblivion and only two prototypes were ever made. The team of engineer headed by Alexeyev then focused on project “KM” (Корабль-макет), better known as Caspian Sea Monster.