Page 90 - The Chief Culprit

About “Obsolete” Airplanes y 67

Both methods of attaining air superiority have their advantages and disadvantages. If we
decide that the primary method of winning superiority in the air is to be through air battles,
then we must be prepared for large losses of planes and pilots, and for prolonged, exhausting
battles. e training of fighter pilots is a risky venture that requires a lot of time and huge expen-
ditures. is method of winning superiority in the air has only one advantage: it is universal; it
can be used in any situation. If we decide to win air superiority through destruction of the en-
emy’s air force on the ground, the task can be accomplished quickly. During the course of one
day or even just a few hours, we can secure not just superiority but total domination. All this
can be accomplished with just one sudden, powerful raid, and no exhausting, prolonged air
battles would need to follow. And we would not need to spend tremendous resources on
training pilots. Even pilots of relatively low qualification are good for this job. ey do not
need to learn tricks. It is enough to teach them how to take off and land, to follow a route,
and to shoot at stationary targets on the ground. is scenario has only one drawback: it can
only be used against an enemy who is not awaiting an invasion.
Before and during the war, the Soviet Union designed quite a few remarkable and at the
same time very simple airplanes. But the best achievement of the Soviet air force was not in
designing airplanes that destroy enemy planes in the air, but in creating airplanes that destroy
enemy planes and other targets on the ground. e Il-2 was the highest Soviet achievement
in aviation technology during World War II. Air bases were its primary target. e Il-2 was
a unique armored low-flying attack plane. We are not talking of armor sheets, which add a
shield to a plane, but of a purely armored body up to 12 mm in thickness. e strength of
this armor was reinforced by the fact that its details had a rounded shape. e problem of
transparent parts was also solved. When bullets hit the front glass of the Il-2, they left only
insignificant cracks, even when the fire came from extremely close ranges. e secret was the
use of armored glass 63 mm thick.
e Il-2 was the only armored plane in history, a true flying tank. e crew cabin, en-
gine, and fuel tanks were all covered with armor. Only the wings, the tail part of the fuselage,
and the tail unit were left unshielded. Aside from the armor protection, a unique survivor
rate, and remarkable body characteristics, the Il-2 had extremely powerful weapons: eight
rocket missiles, two 23-mm automatic cannon that fired at 550 rounds per minute, two ma-
chine guns with a world-record firing rate, and 400 to 600 kilograms of bombs. 1
When creating this attack airplane the designer, Ilyushin, included a small defensive
detail as well. e early model of the Il-2 was a two-seater. Pilot and gunner sat back to
back: the pilot flew the plane and destroyed targets on the ground, while the gunner, with a
.50-caliber machine gun, covered the hind hemisphere from attacking enemy fighters. Stalin
personally called Ilyushin and asked to have the gunner with the machine gun removed, and
make the Il-2 a one-seater. Stalin ordered the entire decrease in weight to be used to enlarge
the bomb load and the fuel tank. Stalin needed the Il-2 for situations in which not a single
enemy fighter would have the time to get off the ground.
e changes in design took several months. e problem was that the technology used
in producing the Il-2 was extremely complex. e cabin was assembled from over twenty
armored parts, which had a double bend, like fragments of a broken mug. e entire tech-
nology for producing the armored fuselage had to be replaced. is delayed the beginning
of mass production of the Il-2. By the time of the German invasion, only 249 of them had
been produced.