Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik Armored Aircraft Family

The Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik was a single-engine armored aircraft family whose prototype first flew in 1939. Its steel load-bearing fuselage and low-level handling were designed around survivable battlefield support, and successive single-seat, two-seat, reconnaissance, and training variants became one of the most numerous aircraft designs of the Second World War. The family is recorded here for its engineering, production, and aviation-history significance without operational weapon detail.