| Il-2 | |
|---|---|
 A Soviet Air Force Ilyushin Il-2M in flight | |
| General information | |
| Type | Ground-attack aircraft |
| National origin | Soviet Union |
| Designer | Ilyushin |
| Built by | Factory 381 State Aviation Factory 18 |
| Primary users | Soviet Air Force |
| Number built | 36,183[1] |
| History | |
| Manufactured | 1941–1945[2] |
| Introduction date | 1941 |
| First flight | 2 October 1939 |
| Retired | 1954 (Bulgarian Air Force & Yugoslav Air Force) |
| Developed into | Ilyushin Il-10 |
The Ilyushin Il-2 (Russian: Илью́шин Ил-2) is a ground-attack plane that was produced by the Soviet Union in large numbers during the Second World War. The word shturmovík (Cyrillic: штурмовик), the generic Russian term for a ground-attack aircraft, became a synecdoche for the Il-2 in English sources, where it is commonly rendered Shturmovik, Stormovik[3] and Sturmovik.[4]
To Il-2 pilots, the aircraft was known by the diminutive "Ilyusha". To the soldiers on the ground, it was called the "Hunchback", the "Flying Tank" or the "Flying Infantryman". Its postwar NATO reporting name was Bark.[5]
During the war, 36,183 units of the Il-2 were produced, and in combination with its successor, the Ilyushin Il-10, a total of 42,330[6] were built, making it the single most produced military aircraft design in aviation history, as well as one of the most produced piloted aircraft in history along with the American postwar civilian Cessna 172 and the German then-contemporary Messerschmitt Bf 109.
The Il-2 played a crucial role on the Eastern Front. When factories fell behind on deliveries, Joseph Stalin told the factory managers that the Il-2s were "as essential to the Red Army as air and bread."[7]