Top Drawings, No. 13

Not for sale in Poland!


The Ilyushin Il-2 was a World War II ground-attack aircraft, produced by the Soviet Union in very large numbers. In combination with its successor, the Ilyushin Il-10, over 40,000 were built, making it the single most produced military aircraft design in all of aviation history, as well as one of the most produced piloted aircraft in history. Regarded as the best ground attack aircraft of World War II, it was a prominent aircraft for tank killing with its accuracy in dive bombing and its 37mm guns penetrating their thin back armour.

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".

The Il-2 aircraft played a crucial role on the Eastern Front, and in Soviet opinion it was the most decisive aircraft in the history of modern land warfare. Joseph Stalin said of them that "They are as essential to the Red Army as air and bread".