WARBIRDS: IL-2 Sturmovik

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[Saturnalia]

This thread is designed to bring to note a rather impressive aircraft from WWII, the Ilyushin IL-2 "Sturmovik".
As the IL-2 served on the Eastern Front during WWII, it is less well known in western circles than the P-51, Bf-109 or any of the Spitfire variants.
The IL-2 was designed for one thing only, ground attack. At this it performed quite well, earning the name "Black Death" from German troops.

Basics:

The IL-2 was the Soviet WWII equivalent to our A-10, in other ways than just the function. The IL-2 was designed to place the pilot, the engine and the fuel tank within a "steel bathtub", providing great protection from forward and ground fire. A major vulnerability common to all models was the exposed oil radiator, located below the pilot. A few machine gun bullets were all that was needed to take the plane out of the fight and send the pilot scrambling for home.

Development:

The early IL-2s that saw service in 1941 were equiped with 2*7.62 mm machine guns, 2*20 mm cannons and provisions for 16*82 mm rockets. As the Luftwaffe soon learned, the lack of a rear gunner allowed fighters to approach in the rear blind spot and aim for the oil radiator and control surfaces with impunity. As 1941 dragged on, the IL-2 was modified to carry only 8 rockets, in an attempt to improve speed and other flight characteritics. Towards the end of 1941, the the IL-2 was given a pair of 2*23 mm cannons with improved armor-piercing ability and some ground crews modified their planes to include a rear gunner equiped with a 12.7 mm machine gun.

A conference was held in 1942 as to how to improve the IL-2 design, as a result of this conference the 1942 IL-2 M model was equiped with a rear gunner position. Further improvements were made to the airframe to rebalance the aircraft and increase performance. The IL-3M 1943 model was equiped with a pair of NS-37 37 mm cannons, fully capable of piercing the rear and top armor of even the Panther and Tiger tanks. The IL-2 also had the largest production run of any warplane- 36163 units.

This is a IL-2 M, equiped with 2*23 mm VYa anti-armor cannons,
2*7.62 ShKas machine guns and a 12.7 mm UBT rear machine gun. This model could carry up to 600 kg
(1320lbs) of munitions. Additionally, this model had room for 4 rockets of 82 mm or 132 mm, which were particularly deadly against tanks.
Top speed varied by model, but generally were 400 +-20 km/h at ground attack level.

[Saturnalia]

Now for those of you who would like to FLY this baby, you are in luck.
This is the home of the best military flight sim yet, coincidently named Il-2 Sturmovik ;D. Lots of low level action with more targets... I mean aircraft than you can shake a control stick at. Even has a nifty demo with multiplayer capabilities, so download and smoke your friends.
So as to not make this space a COMPLETE shameless plug, I hope others will start posting info about other cool aircraft of WWII.

[vannrox]

Thanx for posting this. You are correct, it is an outstanding plane.

[Francohio]

Check out Santa Monica Aircraft Museum, they got a nice one.

[Saturnalia]

Luckily, I'm only a 1/2 hour drive from the Wright-Patterson Air Force museum :D. Nobody seems to realize they keep the Nagasaki bomber there in perfect condition. BIG farkin' aircraft.

[TD911]

Great sim!

More Resources:

SIM HQ FORUM

IL2GEN is a mission/campaign generator, and an absolute necessity for this sim.

Yes it's a flying tank made by the commies, but still cool to fly.

[Saturnalia]

Yes it's a flying tank made by the commies, but still cool to fly.

Needs editing.

Yes it's a flying BAD@$$ tank made by the commies, but still VERY cool to fly.

I love it when 109's make a frontal pass when I'm flying an Il-2. Those 23 mm guns chew them up and spit 'em out.
The effect of 37 mm guns on medium and heavy bombers is just wonderful :D

[spokeshave]

As far as I recsll from the Warbirds magazine...there is a company in Russia making Russian Spitfire equivalents with original drawings...if you have a quarter you mill can get one.

[AF68]

I built a reasonably priced game system just to play IL-2 Sturmovik using an ECS K7S6A motherboard, AMD Athlon XP 1800+ processor, Kingmax DDR333 PC-2700 memory and an ATI Radeon 8500 64MB DDR AGP video card. Rock solid and FAST. It is an AWESOME flight sim.

[pt17]

This is the home of the best military flight sim yet, coincidently named Il-2 Sturmovik

You're right. IL-2 Sturmovik is one of the best flight sims. Scene rendering will blow you away, as will the German fighters if you're not a good pilot. Flight characteristics are very realistic, but you really need a HOTAS (Hands On Throttle And Stick). Mouse and keyboard doesn't do it. Even real pilots like this sim. I recommend it.

[TD911]

Yeah, but the padlock blows chunks.

This is the only thing that forces me to keep EAW on my hard-drive.

[ozzymandus]

Perhaps you should mention that the Russians built 50,000 Sturmoviks and the Germans shot down 49,000 of them. It's an impressive plane with an impressive war record, but it's main attribute was it's sheer numbers.

[VOA]

Check out Santa Monica Aircraft Museum, they got a nice one.

I'm no Russian WWII warbird afficianodo, but I did see a Yak there when I went to
their Sixty Anniversary of the Battle of Britain show.

Maybe I saw the IL-2...just didn't put it in my memory banks given all the Brit and German
birds highlighted that day. I'll look for it the next time I visit.

[Saturnalia]

I think your stats are little bit off as only 36,163 Sturmoviks were manufactured.
Still, you are correct as far as the vast numbers shot down.
Il-2 pilots were awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union after only 10 flights, as opposed to the normal 100 for other aircraft.