Ilyushin Il-2
The Ilyushin Il-2 (Russian: Илью́шин Ил-2) is a ground-attack plane that was produced by the Soviet Union in large numbers during the Second World War. The word shturmovík (Cyrillic: штурмовик), the generic Russian term for a ground-attack aircraft, became a synecdoche for the Il-2 in English sources, where it is commonly rendered Shturmovik, Stormovik[3] and Sturmovik.[4]
"Il-2" redirects here. For other uses, see IL-2 (disambiguation).
To Il-2 pilots, the aircraft was known by the diminutive "Ilyusha". To the soldiers on the ground, it was called the "Hunchback", the "Flying Tank" or the "Flying Infantryman". Its postwar NATO reporting name was Bark.[5]
During the war, 36,183 units of the Il-2 were produced, and in combination with its successor, the Ilyushin Il-10, a total of 42,330[6] were built, making it the single most produced military aircraft design in aviation history, as well as one of the most produced piloted aircraft in history along with the American postwar civilian Cessna 172 and the German then-contemporary Messerschmitt Bf 109.
The Il-2 played a crucial role on the Eastern Front. When factories fell behind on deliveries, Joseph Stalin told the factory managers that the Il-2s were "as essential to the Red Army as air and bread."[7]
Notable aircrew[edit]
Senior Lieutenant Anna Yegorova piloted 243 Il-2 missions and was decorated three times.[40] One of these awards was the Gold Star of Hero of the Soviet Union that Yegorova had received "posthumously" in late 1944, since she was presumed dead after being shot down.[40] She survived imprisonment in a German POW camp.
Guards Junior Lieutenant Ivan Drachenko, another Il-2 pilot, was one of only four men awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and also a Full Cavalier of the Order of Glory as a recipient of each of the Order of Glory's three classes.[41] Despite having lost his right eye as a result of injuries sustained in a combat mission on 14 August 1943, he returned to flying status and continued to fly combat sorties until war's end.[42]
Recipient of the Hero of the Soviet Union award, T. Kuznetsov survived the crash of his Il-2 in 1942 when shot down returning from a reconnaissance mission. Kuznetsov escaped from the wreck and hid nearby. To his surprise, a German Bf 109 fighter landed near the crash site and the pilot began to investigate the wrecked Il-2, possibly to look for souvenirs. Thinking quickly, Kuznetsov ran to the German fighter and used it to fly home, barely avoiding being shot down by Soviet fighters in the process.[22]
Lieutenant Colonel Nelson Stepanyan flew an Il-2 and took part in a number of aerial battles and bombing sorties. He was shot down once but returned to Soviet lines. On his final sortie in Liepāja, Latvia on 14 December 1944, his plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire, and although wounded, he flew his airplane into a German warship. Soviet sources assert that Stepanyan flew no fewer than 239 combat sorties, sank 53 ships, thirteen of which he did alone, destroyed 80 tanks, 600 armored vehicles, and 27 aircraft.[43]
Cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy flew the Ilyushin in 185 sorties, and was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union title in 1944. He was the earliest-born cosmonaut, and the only cosmonaut to be a Hero of the Soviet Union for an earlier achievement unrelated to space travel.
Data from The Annals of Ilyusha…[76]
General characteristics
Performance
Armament
Related development
Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era
Related lists