Ilyushin Il-2

The Ilyushin Il-2 (Cyrillic: Илью́шин Ил-2) Sturmovik was a ground-attack aircraft (Cyrillic: Штурмови́к, Šturmovík) produced by the Soviet Union in large numbers during the Second World War. With 36,183 examples of the Il-2 produced during the war, and in combination with its successor, the Ilyushin Il-10, a total of 42,330 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 Soviet Union's own then-contemporary Polikarpov Po-2 Kukuruznik multipurpose biplane, itself sometimes seen side-by-side with the big armored Ilyushin monoplane on the front lines.

To Il-2 pilots, the aircraft was simply the diminutive "Ilyusha". To the soldiers on the ground, it was the "Hunchback", the "Flying Tank" or the "Flying Infantryman". Its postwar NATO reporting name was "Bark". The Il-2 aircraft played a crucial role on the Eastern Front. Joseph Stalin paid the Il-2 a great tribute in his own inimitable manner: when a particular production factory fell behind on its deliveries, Stalin sent an angrily worded cable to the factory manager, stating "They are as essential to the Red Army as air and bread." "I demand more machines. This is my final warning!"

Kochyerigin DI-6

Kochyerigin DI-6 (internal designation TsKB-11; Russian: Кочеригин ДИ-6/ЦКБ-11) was a two-seat fighter biplane produced in the Soviet Union in the 1930s.

DI-6 was developed at TsKB as a fighter that would also be capable of ground attack when fitted with different armament. Originally intended to use a liquid-cooled V-12 engine, problems with its development led to the choice of the Wright R-1820 radial engine instead. The first flight took place on 30 September 1934, and testing began in earnest in early 1935, with State Acceptance Trials following between May and November. Despite a number of weaknesses discovered during testing, the type was ordered into production, and deliveries to the Air Force commenced in spring 1937. Problems including excessive vibration, and a poor field of fire for the gunner, were never adequately resolved, and the various fixes implemented to cure these and other problems eventually added around 160 kg (350 lb) to the aircraft's weight. Production continued until 1939.

Ilyushin DB-4

The Ilyushin DB-4 (DB - Дальний бомбардировщик - Dalniy Bombardirovshchik - long-range bomber) or TsKB-56 (TsKB - Tsentral'noye Konstruktorskoye Byuro - central construction bureau) was a Soviet twin-engined bomber aircraft of the early 1940s. It was a development of the Ilyushin DB-3 and was intended as a replacement for the earlier aircraft, but only two prototypes were built; engine problems and the need to concentrate production on existing types following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 meant that no more examples were built.

Design and development

In the late 1930s, the Ilyushin OKB (or design bureau) was tasked with designing a replacement for its DB-3 twin-engined, long-range bomber. Ilyushin carried out design work on the new aircraft, which was given the internal design bureau designation TsKB-56, in parallel with the DB-3F (later designated the Il-4). While the DB-3F was a relatively simple upgrade of the DB-3, the TsKB-56, which had the service designation DB-3, was larger and heavier, in order to meet the requirements for greater performance and a heavier bomb load. The DB-4 had a high-mounted wing to accommodate a large bomb-bay, with a retractable tailwheel undercarriage fitted, while the radial engines of the DB-3 were to be replaced by the new Klimov M-120, an 18-cylinder liquid-cooled engine of unusual design, with three banks of 6 cylinders arranged in an inverted "Y"-shape, which was to have a take-off power of 1,800 hp (1,346 kW). It was to have a crew of four consisting of a pilot, navigator, dorsal gunner and radio operator. Defensive armament was three ShKAS machine guns, one in the nose, one in a dorsal turret and one firing through a ventral hatch, while the deep bomb-bay could carry 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) of bombs.