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Some enemy pilots favored aiming down into the cockpit and wing roots in diving attacks on the slow, low-flying Il-2 formations.A major threat to the Il-2 was German ground fire. One Il-2 in particular was reported to have returned safely to base despite receiving more than 600 direct hits and having all its control surfaces completely shredded as well as numerous holes in its main armor and other structural damage. Thanks to the heavy armor protection, an Il-2 could take a great deal of punishment and proved difficult for both ground and aircraft fire to shoot down.
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PTABs were first used in large scale in the Battle of Kursk. The HEAT charge could easily penetrate the relatively thin upper armor of all heavy German tanks. Up to 192 were carried in four external dispensers (cluster bombs) or up to 220 in the internal weapon bays. They were designated PTAB-2.5-1.5, as they had the size of a 2.5 kg (5.5 lb) bomb, but weighed only 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) due to the empty space in the shaped charge. Although the Il-2's RS-82 and RS-132 rockets could destroy armored vehicles with a single hit, they were so inaccurate that experienced Il-2 pilots mainly utilized the cannon.Another potent weapon of the Il-2s was the PTAB shaped charge bomblets (protivotankovaya aviabomba, "anti-tank aviation bomb"). Instead of a low horizontal straight approach at 50 metres altitude, the target was usually kept to the pilot's left and a turn and shallow dive of 30 degrees was utilized, using an echeloned assault by four to 12 aircraft at a time. The fuselage was conventional in structure, being made originally of wood and later of metal.Tactics improved as Soviet aircrew became used to the Il-2's strengths.
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There was also duralumin armor 5 mm thick on the upper surfaces, and the cockpit canopy had bullet-proof transparencies and a 65 mm-thick windscreen. The steel armor of the Il-2 varied in thickness from an average 4-8 mm to 13 mm on the rear fuselage. It was also substantially lighter than traditional armor plating. This solution provided maximum protection for the engine, its main accessories and the crew. The most original aspect of the Il-2 design was the fact that the entire forward part of the aircraft (from the engine compartment to the cockpit) was a single-armored shell that also had structural functions. The Il-2 then went into immediate production. It was not until the development of the third prototype, which took to the air in October of the following year, that the Il-2 was regarded as acceptable. Flight-test results were not outstanding, however: the engine was not powerful enough, and there was also some longitudinal instability. The first Stormovik appeared in the spring of 1939 under the designation TsKB-55. The same request was issued to Pavel Sukhoi, who came up with the undistinguished Su-2. The career of the ‘Stormovik’ (as the Il-2 and its direct successors were known) continued after WW2, with the Il-10 going to Soviet satellite countries (Hungary, Romania, China, North Korea, Albania, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and East Germany) and serving in the Korean War.ĭesign of the Stormovik was begun in 1938 by Sergei Ilyushin and his team in answer to a specification calling for a single-engined monoplane for ground attack and tactical bombing. More than 36,000 Il-2s came off the production line in several versions.