Even the canopy averaged six centimeters of armored glass. However, it was slightly faster, at 250 miles per hour, and more heavily armed, with two 20-millimeter cannons in addition to two machine guns in the wings.Īn armored tub five to 12 millimeters thick shielded the cockpit, fuel tanks, AM38 engine and radiators. German Federal Archives photoĪfter several prototypes, the resulting single-seat Il-2 production aircraft weighed nearly 10,000 pounds, compared to 7,000 for the Stuka, and could carry a similar maximum bomb load of around 1,100 pounds. Ilyushin’s solution was to make the steel armor an integral load-bearing element of the Il-2’s monocoque fuselage - even though the rear of the aircraft and the wings panels were still made of wood. Simply bolting on armor plates is liable to make an airplane fly like a brick. ![]() Soviet aeronautical engineer Sergey Ilyushin proposed a Stuka-like plane with a twist - his ground-attack plane would be armored. The latter revolutionized mechanized warfare by using Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers to provide relatively precise air support for fast-moving mechanized columns.īut after the initial shock of Stuka attacks early in the war, the slow and lightly armored dive bomber proved excessively vulnerable to enemy fighters and flak. The Soviet Air Force, or VVS, was primarily oriented toward supporting troops on the ground, much like the German Luftwaffe. If you had to choose one plane that defined Soviet air power in World War II, there can be little doubt it was the Il-2 Sturmovik “Flying Tank,” an armored ground-attack plane that hammered Nazi Germany’s tanks and troops from the opening days of Operation Barbarossa to the fall of Berlin.ĭespite sustaining horrifying losses to opposing fighters and flak guns, Soviet industry fed tens of thousands of the sturdy warplanes into the struggle, making it the most extensively produced military aircraft type ever. ![]() Altoing photo via Wikimedia Soviet ground attackers flew to the rescue - by the thousands
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