Ilyushin Il-2

It was one of the most famous attack aircraft during the Second World War. It was also used by the Soviet Air Force in the initial post-war period. The two-seater version of the aircraft was in service with Polish aviation until the early 1950s.

In the mid-1930s, along with the development of armored and motorized weapons, work began on the construction of a battlefield aircraft capable of destroying tanks and armored personnel carriers. A dozen prototypes were built, many assault machines were produced in small series, but the expected results were not achieved. There were attempts to adapt these planes to assault tasks by using teams or even whole machines of completely different purposes (e.g. R-5 - an excellent reconnaissance aircraft and light bomber), as a result of which their flight and tactical parameters deteriorated significantly. This was due to the fact that the armor used in important parts of the aircraft was an additional ballast, not an element of the aircraft structure.

As a result of a deep analysis of the use of attack aviation and the experience gained from the battles over Spain and Mongolia, it was decided to build two new prototypes of the attack aircraft. This task was given to P.O. Suchoj - associate of the Tupolev office at CAGI and S.W. Ilyushin from CSK.

Design office S.W. IIjuszyna adopted the concept of building an attack aircraft, the armor of the critical parts of the aircraft constituted an integral element of the fuselage structure of varying thickness, depending on the degree of exposure to anti-aircraft fire from the ground. Preparatory work and research were carried out earlier, even before the decision to build a prototype was made.

Such a new plane was the prototype, designated CKB-55, powered by the AM-35 engine. In 1939, the first flight tests began. It was a two-seater low-wing, retractable undercarriage, with 4-7 mm thick armor plate at the front and bottom of the fuselage. It protected the engine with gensets, fuel and oil tanks, coolers and the crew. The tests of the aircraft showed that it has insufficient armament, consisting of 4 KM. SzKAS and poor performance, because with a take-off weight of 5280 kg, the engine power was too low.

Therefore, the commission conducting the tests recommended: eliminate the Gunner's station and introduce an additional fuel tank, increase the armor of some elements to 12 mm and the armament. This resulted in a new single-seat stormtrooper prototype, designated CKB-57, powered by an AM-38 engine with increased power to 1,110 kW and the following armament: two 20mm SzWAK cannons and two 7.62mm SzKAS machine guns placed in wings, 8 RS-82 missiles or 400 kg of bombs. After successfully passing the tests of the CKB-57 aircraft, production was launched, and in March 1941 the first serial copies left the factory under the designation IŁ-2. When the state tests of the Iljushin aircraft began, the "competitive" Suchoja Su-6 airframe was in the initial phase of flight tests, which were delayed due to the shortcomings of the M-71 engine used on it.

By June 1941, 249 copies of this single-seater attack aircraft had been produced. These aircraft were combat-tested in the fights in the outskirts of Moscow. Due to the shift to the east of the front line, their factory was moved from Moscow to the Urals.

The first frontline experiences revealed, apart from the undeniable advantages, also the disadvantages of the plane. The advantages include high resistance to shot holes and good effectiveness. The main disadvantage, however, was the lack of a rear gunner position, which resulted in heavy losses (attack planes initially flew without hunting cover). The aircraft's shooting armament in the fight against armored weapons proved to be ineffective. As a result of the experiences of the first period of the war, in many assault regiments single-seater assault planes were converted in regimental workshops into a two-seater version, providing a makeshift shooting position behind the pilot's back. Only after the Moscow meeting of the commanders of the assault regiments, in the spring of 1942, a shooting stand kit was manufactured for assembly in the regimental workshops.

In the course of production of the aircraft, many modifications were introduced to improve flight and tactical properties, facilitate production, or improve ground handling. The most important ones include: placing a shooting pilot with a UBT-12.7 mm machine gun behind the cockpit, introducing new 23 mm caliber cannons, introducing a new 1290 kW AM-38F engine. In total, over 36,000 IL-2 aircraft of all varieties were produced.

AIRPLANE CONSTRUCTION

The wing - three-part, all metal, with a slight rise, consists of a center wing and two attached tips. It is equipped with segmented crocodile flaps and metal ailerons. Relief tabs are placed on the ailerons. In the centrainey part, there are two nacelles for the landing gear and four bomb hatches. The compressor air intake is located on the right side of the center wing.

The hull - in the front part, a shell with a working roofing, made of steel sheet, behind the cabin covered with a duralumin sheet. The front, armored part housed the engine with accessories and covered the fuel tanks and the pilot's cabin.

Ballasts - all-metal structure. Metal, cloth-covered rudders are equipped with trimmers.

The engine - a V-type, 12-cylinder, liquid-cooled, liquid-cooled AM-38 engine with a power of 1,110 kW (1,600 hp) drove a three-blade, adjustable propeller. Starting the engine with pneumatic, compressed air or with the use of a special aggregate located on the car.

Undercarriage - two-legged, retractable to the rear in the center-wing nacelle, partially protruding when retracted. Oil-air cushioning. Fixed, steered tail wheel with a locking device in the starting position.

Equipment - consisted of a pneumatic system for retracting and extending the landing gear, flaps and engine start-up, 24V electrical system and a radio station. All the flight instruments necessary for the flight were in the pilot's cabin.

ARMAMENT
Strzeleckie - 2 km. 7.62mm SzKAS with a total ammunition of 1,500, 2 x 20mm SzWAK cannons with a total ammunition of 400.

Bombs - bombs in four bomb chambers located in the center wing or in two external points between the bomb chambers with the possibility of suspending various weighting variants of the bomb load. The maximum load of bombs, depending on the surface of the airport, is 400-600 kg.

Rocket - 8 RS-82 type non-guided missiles on under-wing launchers. From 1942, the M-13 and RS-132 missiles were introduced.

A PBP-1 or WW-1 sight was used for fire control and bombing. On the fuselage, in front of the cabin windshield, there was a ring on the boom, which when aiming was aligned with the cross on the front armored windshield. Apart from the cross, there were also scales and circles on it, which made it easier to make corrections and assess the distance of the plane from the target. For bombardment targeting, horizontal lines were used, marked on the inside of the windshield windshield, which were aligned with the tuk tuk drawn on the front of the fuselage (individual lines related to specific heights). Crosses on the side windows of the front part of the windbreak and small pegs screwed into the left and right sides of the front part of the fuselage served the same purpose.

Painting - at the beginning of the war, the IL-2 planes were painted olive green from above, and the surfaces visible from the bottom - uniformly light blue. Gray painted were also used. In winter, they were covered with white, washable paint. Borderless red stars, tactical numbers on the vertical stabilizer, white or yellow.

Ilyushin Il-2 plane plans

Ilyushin Il-2 plane plans

Ilyushin Il-2 plane free plans

DIMENSIONS AND PERFORMANCE
Span - 14.60 m
Length - 11.65 m
Height - 4.17 m
Own weight - 4020 kg
Take-off weight max. - 5540 kg
Speed max.
height - 423 km / h Rate of climb - 9.5 m / s
Service ceiling - 7500 m
Range - 500-600 km Run-up - 410 m
Landing distance - 360 m
400 ammunition.