WarSimBox
The armoured shell
Ilyushin’s idea was to use the armour not as plates bolted on later but as the fuselage itself: the steel shell around the engine, cockpit and fuel tank was also a load-bearing part of the structure. That way heavy armour could be carried without making the aircraft too heavy. Flying low, the Il-2 was almost immune to rifle and machine-gun fire.
Open from behind
The first Il-2s to enter production were single-seaters, with no gunner to cover the rear. German fighters attacking from behind and below inflicted heavy losses. Front-line units began to cut gunner positions behind the cockpit themselves, and from 1942 the factories built two-seat Il-2s.
The attack aircraft of the Eastern Front
The Il-2 attacked tanks, artillery, railways and troops all along the Eastern Front, usually from very low level, with cannon, rockets and bombs. When production faltered at the end of 1941, Stalin wrote in a telegram to the factory directors that the Red Army needed the Il-2 “like air, like bread”. Towards the end of the war it began to give way to the more advanced Il-10.
In WarSimBox
In the game it is a ground-attack aircraft with some of the heaviest armour in the game, very resistant to ground fire and machine guns. It attacks from low level with cannon, bombs and, once researched, RS-82 rockets. As a single-seater its rear is unprotected; where enemy fighters are about it needs an escort.
Unlocked in the aircraft tree after researching Armoured cockpit tub. Leads on to: Ilyushin Il-2M3 (two-seat).
- Top speed
- 424 km/h · 2,000 m
- Climb
- 9.4 m/s
- Sustained turn
- 22.8 s
- Stall speed
- 141 km/h
These figures come from the game’s flight model (climb, turn and stall at sea level).
Fly it in WarSimBox