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[HIGH-SPEED VESSELS] Kto skorei? [i.e. Who Is Speedier?]

Item #2522

[Leningrad]: Izd. Len. Obl. Soveta OSVODa, [1930s]. 12 pp.: ill. 15×18 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Spine restored, small spots occasionally, otherwise very good.

This early Soviet children’s book introduces various high-speed vessels of that time. The publication was commissioned by OSVOD, the Water Rescue Society founded back in the Russian Empire in 1866 and reformed in the Soviet Union. Most early Soviet books were devoted to production technologies of diversified items and food. Several publications of that time explained to children the “evolutionary” path of transport from horse-drawn vehicles to airplanes and locomotives. This book is similar to them. Each page features a different type of water transport: outboard motor boat, gliding speedboat, flying boat, high-speed motor boat, racing boats, aquaplane, sea sledge, military torpedo boat.
In the USSR, aircraft designers were engaged in construction of gliders and flying boats. Soviet gliding construction began in the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TSAGI) in 1920. Then, the construction of a wooden open passenger glider with a water propeller attracted many employees, including scientist Nikolai Zhukovsky and chief designer Andrei Tupolev. Gliders were constructed of the same material as airplanes (duralumin). Imported engines had been used for gliders for a long time.

Despite publishing such a book in the 1930s, aquaplane and water skis weren’t produced in the USSR until the 1950s – Soviet representatives returning from international competitions and Cold
war magazines described life beyond the USSR. Until the 1950s, only wooden boats were available to ordinary people – they fished, ferried from shore to shore, and transported passengers. In 1955, a Kazan factory launched mass production of metal motorboats.

Price: $1,950.00