FlyPast 02.2018

78 FLYPAST February 2018

FROM THE WORKSHOP STURMOVIK

Sturmovik reborn

A collection of images illustrating the return to fl ight of the Vadim Zadorozhny Technical

Museum’s Ilyushin Il-2.

I

luyshin Il-2 Sturmovik 1872452

has returned to the skies – a

feat that is a great testimony to

the determined team of engineers

who have worked on this

ambitious project for five years.

In June 2012, it was one of a pair

of Russian aircraft recovered from

Lake Krivoe, close to Kazakstan’s

norther border and about one mile

to the southeast of the former

Soviet airfield of Veanga-2. The

latter was one of the primary

airfields used to defend Murmansk

during the Great Patriotic War (the

conflict between Germany and the

Soviet Union in World War Two).

The aircraft, Iluyshin Il-2

Sturmovik 1872452 and a Yakovlev

Yak-1, were recovered by the

Icarus search team (of the Wings

of Victory Fund) for the Vadim

Zadorozhny Museum of Equipment

in Moscow as detailed previously

in FlyPast.

The Il-2 was transferred to

the Aviarestoration facility at

Novosibirsk, Siberia to be restored

to flying condition whereas the

Yak-1 went to the museum and

is being considered as a future

restoration project.

Many thanks to Mark Sheppard for

his help with this update. Thanks

must also go to Boris Osetinsky,

the Icarus group, Andrey Kopytkov

for the initial research, Sergei

Kuznetsov, Rune Rautio and Erik

Pilawski.

A view of the cockpit at the time of the Il-2’s recovery. Many instruments and controls are visible

despite being encrusted in marine growth.

The instrument panel of Il-2 1872452 taking shape in the restoration workshop at

Novosibirsk, Siberia.