8 | FLIGHTPATHWANAKA AIRPORT | NEW ZEALANDNews
Soviet Tankbuster Renaissance
An airworthy rebuild of an Ilyushin Il-
Sturmovik ground-attack aircraft has flown
after restoration and painting was complet-
ed in Russia. This example is an earlier
‘straight-wing’ version of the Ilyushin Il-2,
and is another step towards re-recognising
the importance of one of the most critical
warplanes of W.W.II. Flown extensively by
the Soviet air forces, primarily in the role of
ground attack and tank busting, it was a
type that was personally supported by Sta-
lin, who insisted it was as critical to the Red
Army’s survival in the Great Patriotic War
as bread. Built in greater numbers (36,000)
than any other military aircraft, ever, they
were also lost in huge numbers, given the
maelstrom of the Eastern Front, but were a
decisive factor in the Soviet victory.
The damaged Il-2, from the Soviet Navy’s 46th ShAP Shturmovik As-
sault Regiment, was force landed on the ice of Lake Krivoye on 25 No-
vember 1943. Pilot Valentin Skopintsev, and wounded gunner Vladimir
Humenniy, survived, getting out before the aircraft sank through the
broken ice. Then Skopintsev carried his wounded gunner the remaining
three kilometres (two miles) back to their base. The Il-2 was re-discov-
ered by divers in 2011 at a depth of 20 metres (65 ft). In 2015, the
Крылатая Память Победы (Winged Victory Memorial Foundation) raised
the Il-2 and sent it for restoration to the workshops of Aviastavratsiya
and the Siberian Research Institute of Aviation, Novosibirsk.
The Foundation and the Ilyushin aircraft company agreed to finance
most of the restoration work on the Il-2, and Boris Osiatinsky, president ofthe Winged Victory Memorial Foundation, noted that: "About 60 percent
of the aircraft’s parts were recovered.” This is the Foundation’s second
Il-2 rebuild, following the currently sole airworthy example flying with
the former Flying Heritage Collection (now known as the Flying Herit-
age and Combat Armor Collection) of Seattle, WA, USA. Furthermore,
the Foundation has restored a total of twenty combat aircraft from the
Great Patriotic War era, including the Polikarpovs mentioned on page 47
and in previous issues of Flightpath. Both of the flying Sturmoviks are
powered by American Allison engines rather than the original Mikulin
AM-38F of 1285 kW (1720 hp).
The Ilyushin general director Sergei Velmogkin said, “We are
proud of this glorious landmark in the history of our design office.
It is planned that the only Russian-based Il-2 ground attack aircraft
restored to flight will be demonstrated in the air at airshows and
aviation events for the purpose of military-patriotic education of
our youth, the popularisation of Ilyushin aircraft, the Russian avia-
tion industry, and the Russian Air Force Federation”.FRENCH STURMOVIKS
Meanwhile, in France, Amicale des Mécaniciens et Pilotes d'Aéronefs
Anciens (AMPAA) in Melun-Villaroche, are restoring two Ilyushin Il-
10 Sturmoviks. The Il-10 is the improved version of the Il-2, seeing
brief service at the end of the Great Patriotic War, and powered by the
more powerful Mikulin AM-42 engine of 1490kW (2000hp). But the Il-
10 and its licensed variant, the Avia B-33, replaced the Il-2 in the War-
saw Pact air forces as the Cold War developed. Tough, and not used in
large numbers in a ‘hot’ war, numerous examples therefore survived
across the former Eastern Bloc, vastly outnumbering the more his-
torically important Il-2 they replaced.
Two Il-10s were obtained from the Letecké Muzeum Kbely, (Avi-
ation Museum, Prague-Kbely) in the Czech Republic. One is to be
restored to airworthy condition while the other one will go on stat-
ic display. One of the machines, DD-39, was displayed for thirty
years on a memorial for the Czechoslovak Air Division in the centre
of the Czech town of Ostrava. When the monument was dismantled
in the early nineties, the aircraft was handed over to the aviation
museum.James KightlyThe newly-painted Il-2.
[Winged Victory Memorial Foundation]The two Ilyushin Il-10s
in Melun-Villaroche,
France. [AMPAA]