IL-2 Sturmovik 1944

[71st_AH_Mastiff]

This is all I could find on engine information and didn't know that in 1943 they redesigned the wings to a swept 15degree.

according to this document the version in game should only carry 2x132 rockets. on the 1600hp Mikulin AM-38.

From Tamiya's 1/72 1944 IL-2 Shturmovik model photos by OJSC "IL"

 

 

Edited October 13, 2015 by 71st_Mastiff

[216th_Lucas_From_Hell]

Good read  

 

That gunner space was cut out in the field in the game version, and back in the day it seems a lot of crews didn't welcome it at all because it changed the plane's flight characteristics and had an impact on stability and that's why they had to redesign the wing. Anna Egorova's Over Fields Of Fire describes that pretty well. Flying over Kuban in 1943, despite all the hell that regularly broke loose up in the air, she passed on the two-seater Il-2 she had ferried to the airfield and instead picked one of the older single seat variants of the squadron as her ride because it was nimbler and faster. As time went, she was the last pilot of 805th ShAP flying the old Ilyusha without a gunner.

 

This quickly changed after she flew a sortie and was assigned the rear of the formation. After the LaGG-3 escort got tangled up, the Il-2s - like any bomber flight - grouped up in a defensive box formation to concentrate maximum firepower. This was well, except for the fact that she was flying tail end Charlie and her plane was the only one not shooting back at the 109s that started descending upon them. After being hit by a burst, she broke left. The Germans took note of that and broke off, half to each side, and came together from left and right shooting at her unprotected plane. Yet again she saw a stream of tracers passing close by and, done being a sitting duck, smashed the throttle forward and tucked her defenseless Hunchback right between the leader and his wingman. On debriefing this awarded her enough reprimands - breaching combat formation and risking the n.2 firing at her since she came through so suddenly - but a chance to survive too, and while the Captain scolded her she stuck up to him asking why the hell did he not form a defensive circle and dragged the fight over to Soviet lines once he saw a plane from his flight was being picked at individually, which settled the score. The n.2 pierced the silence by saying he could never mistake Egorova for an enemy plane - 'I could clearly see her blue kerchief sticking out of the helmet, sir' and it was all laughs and thus forgotten.

 

I found this drawing comparing the wings on early and late 2-seater Il-2 models, quite an interesting change.

 

[71st_AH_Mastiff]

So the variant wasn't fully changed until late 44? the wing swept 15%.

I can not find any 1:72 scale models with this 1942 variants.

Edited October 13, 2015 by 71st_Mastiff

[Lusekofte]

The swept wing was a solution to avoid redesigning the plane entirely. I understand Stalin was very weary of redesigning anything. He was against replacing the I 16 in the first place. All IL 2 models was very back heavy until the redesign of the wing, and this redesign was not ideal for the flight charasterispics either, but it would do.

The replacement IL 10 was a far more agile aircraft . 

[6./ZG26_5tuka]

To be precise the back slanted wing configuration moved the CoL (center of lift) further back, means closer to the CoG (center of gravity). The IL-2 was a very tailheavy design due to it's CoG placement which required great structural changes of the fuselage to solve. Alternatively, by shifting the CoL backwards, a similar correction can be made to the aircraft's pitch stability as shifitng the CoG forward, however the result is not quite the same.

[Pierre64]

By the way, did you notice that the emplacement of the 15° swept wing is already present on the IL2M42 template?

[Finkeren]

By the way, did you notice that the emplacement of the 15° swept wing is already present on the IL2M42 template?

IL-2_swept_wing.jpg

Well spotted.

 

Thinking ahead it seems

Edited October 15, 2015 by Finkeren