Ilyushin IL-2m3 & IL-10 " Sturmovik "

Ilyushin IL-2m3

 

Ilyushin IL-10

The IL-2 was the symbol of Soviet air power in World War II. It is emblematic of the Soviet stress on ground attack aircraft as part of combined arms warfare. In 1938 the Ilyushin design bureau began work on a heavily-armored low-level attack aircraft, a sturmovik in Russian. This word came to be synonymous with the IL-2. Entering production in 1940, the IL-2 sported an armament of two wing-mounted 20mm ShVAK armor-piercing cannon and two 7.62mm machine guns and carried eight rockets and 400 kilograms (880 pounds) of bombs. It had protective armor up to 12mm thick around the engine and two-man cockpit, although the rear fuselage was of plywood.

The VVS (Soviet Air Forces) had 249 IL-2s in service when the war started. As aircraft factories relocated east of the Urals in 1941 to escape German bombing, Stalin characterized the IL-2 as necessary to the Red Army "like air, like bread." Production became a national priority, and the Russians built 36,163 IL-2s by November 1944, at first under appalling winter conditions as laborers erected factory walls and roofs around open-air assembly lines. Later, production rates climbed as high as 1.5 aircraft an hour at some plants, and 41,129 were built by the war's end. The first production IL-2s flew directly to front-line units before tests of the prototype were even completed. The plane's easy handling, powerful armament, and invulnerability to ground fire made it a devastating ground attack aircraft, especially with the tenacity of desperate pilots, and the Germans called it the "Black Death." But losses were extremely high from German fighters, even after a rear gun was added for self defense-14,200 were claimed downed in 1943 and 1944 alone. The Luftwaffe even formed specially-trained fighter units to target IL-2s, and several of Germany's highest-ranking aces gained most of their kills against IL-2s

Indicating how dangerous this ground attack work was, IL-2 pilots received the Hero of the Soviet Union award after only 10 missions. It normally required 100 missions to earn this highest Soviet award for valor. And pilots, surrounded by the IL-2's protective armor, expected to outlive six or more gunners. As the war progressed, the IL-2 received more powerful guns, including cannons of up to 37mm size, and more powerful engines. It was beloved by pilots and referred to affectionately as 'Ilyusha' because of its ruggedness: half of all sturmoviks returning safely from missions had combat damage, but most were repairable. Few lasted more than 100 hours-about 50 missions.

In February 1942 it was decided to introduce a two-seat Il-2 in line with Ilyushin's original concept. The resulting Il-2M had provision for a rear gunner under an extended canopy operating a single 12.7 mm (0.50 in) UBT machine gun. Two conversions were flight tested in March 1942, and production aircraft appeared from September 1942, with other aircraft being converted into two-seaters in the field. It had redesigned wings with 15° sweepback on the outer panels. Performance and flying qualities were much improved and the Type 3 went on to become the most important and numerous version of the Il-2. The introduction of a rear gunner on the IL-2 came as a nasty surprise to Luftwaffe pilots who had previously found the single-seat IL-2 easy prey. Since in combat, it was hard to distinguish between the single seat and two seat versions, the Luftwaffe ordered pilots to change tactics from a rear attack to a head-on attack. The Soviets noticing the shift in Luftwaffe tactics, continued to operate shingle seat aircraft, and often "dummied" them to appear more like the two-seat version.

Stalin had made production of the IL-2 an urgent priority and within 12 months the number of man hours required to produce an IL-2 had been cut by 38 percent and improved production resulted in a 400 percent increase in service deliveries between July 1942 and July 1943. Eventually total production was to be 36,163 aircraft, with later aircraft being mostly two-seat Il-2m3, with air frame refinements which raised the top speed by 21 mph (33.8 km/h), and a formidable 37 mm NS-11 or P-37 cannon in place of the 20 mm ShVAK or 23 mm VYa cannon, four 132 mm RS-132 rockets and launchers able to dispense 200 PTAB hollow-charge anti-tank bombs. Other changes introduced on the production lines included the installation of the more powerful 1,720 hp (1,282 kW) AM-38F engine, various aerodynamic refinements meant to improve performance and to compensate for the increased weight of the gunner and revised armament, the enforced introduction of wooden outer wing panels (replacing metal), and increased fuel capacity

The Il-10 was a completely new design of all-metal construction and improved aerodynamic form with a newer and even more powerful AM-42 engine delivering 2,000 hp (1,492 kW). It provided better crew accommodation, the gunner seated with his back to the pilot in an enlarged cockpit, and both crew members were located within the protective armored shell. A new undercarriage with a new retracting system (with wheels laid flat in the wings after retracting) eliminating the large landing gear fairing of the IL-2 and requiring only small fairing over the pivoting mechanism and new cooling air intakes in the wing roots. Early favorable reports of the prototype test program led to a batch of pre-series machines, quantity production being initiated in August 1944, with evaluation in operational regiments starting two months later. The type was used first in operations in February 1945 and by that spring output reached a peak. Many regiments re-equipped with the IL-10 before the German surrender, and a considerable number took part in the brief but large-scale operations against the Japanese in Manchuria and Korea during August 1945.