Palmiro Khitrova Alekseyev  

Пальмиро Хитрова Алексеев

Mikhail Gorbachev called him ‘The most visionary vehicle designer in history’.

For those who debate ‘Nature versus Nurture’, Alexeyev might be viewed as an example for the latter. His genetic inheritance suggests a definitive predisposition to his passion.

As son of the famous Rostislav Evgenievich Alexeyev, ‘father of the ‘ekranoplan’ that mastered ground effect, this might prove a point. However, as his grandfather is rumoured to have been Palmiro Togliatti and grandmother Larissa Reissner, this makes him great nephew of mathematician Eugenio Giuseppe Togliatti, discoverer of Togliatti Surfaces. His mother, Lada Reissner is believed to be the real inspiration for the naming of the Lada, Russia’s famous automobile built by AvtoVAZ in Tolyatti, the city named in honour of his grandfather.

Alexeyev has been called the ‘perfect storm’ of Italian design and Russian pragmatism, producing a mobile minimalist art form that is both appealing and beneficial. Due to his heritage he has continually applied his talent to vehicle design from land based, to amphibious, to aircraft; with numerous mutants in between serving industrial needs.

The reason attention is drawn to him above the much more glamorous institutional names usually associated with air, land and sea vehicles is his visionary nature of transportation that values the desires of the individual, yet serves the needs of society.

Alexeyev has designed or consulted for companies as large Boeing, Airbus Group, Lockheed Martin, United Technologies yet assisted small start-ups who lack finance but exude imagination.

His influence can be seen from eastern bloc all-terrain vehicles to flying phenomenon, from invisible to invincible, to driverless-pilotless flying cars and mass transit drones. Alexeyev has paved the way for young designers sometimes described as disciples, especially from Eastern Europe as may be evident in the creations of Samir Sadikhov, Mate Rimac and others.

It is just as well that Palmiro Khitrova Alexeyev loves his work. The children of famous people often become victims of such parental fame. In this case, the ‘nature’ aspect of that age old discussion definitely wins when considering the diversity of the impact of Alexeyev’s designs.

Family connections, such as his grandfather’s with Robert Bartini and reputations have been a major contributing factor to the extraordinary access he has to developing materials for structure and sources of energy; including graphane, thorium, graphene and molten salt, plus many of the papers of Thomas Townsend Brown, Viktor Schauberger and Nikola Tesla .

Perhaps Palmiro Khitrova Alexeyev really is a rare example of what can occur when both nature and nurture connect harmoniously for the fortunate possessor. In this case, such a combination is directing the revolution of the nature of every man-made (or machine made) mode of transportation since the invention of the wheel and use of the wing.

[Thanks to Tolyatti Library]