Book Review of
Ilyushin IL-2
Spotlight On No. 22
Author: Viktor Povinsky
Stratus/MMP
ISBN: 978-83-65958-68-6
By Ray Mehlberger
MSRP: $29.00
ISBN: 978-83-65958-68-6
By Ray Mehlberger
MSRP: $29.00
HISTORY:
The Ilyushin Il-2 (Cyrillic: Илью́шин Ил-2) Shturmovik[3] (Cyrillic: Штурмови́к, Shturmovík) was a ground-attack aircraft produced by the Soviet Union in large numbers during the Second World War. With 36,183 units of the Il-2 produced during the war, and in combination with its successor, the Ilyushin Il-10, a total of 42,330 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 Soviet Union's own then-contemporary Polikarpov Po-2 Kukuruznik multipurpose biplane.
To Il-2 pilots, the aircraft was simply the diminutive "Ilyusha". To the soldiers on the ground, it was the "Hunchback", the "Flying Tank" or the "Flying Infantryman". Its postwar NATO reporting name was "Bark".
The Il-2 aircraft played a crucial role on the Eastern Front. When a factory fell behind on its deliveries, Joseph Stalin told the factory manager that they were "as essential to the Red Army as air and bread.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Role: Ground-attack aircraft
Manufacturer: Ilyushin Design Bureau
First flight: 2 October 1939
Introduction to service: 1941
Retired: 1954 (Yugoslavia and Bulgaria)
Primary users: Soviet Air Force, Poland, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia
Produced: 1941–1945
Number built: 36,183
Variants: Ilyushin Il-10
THE BOOK:
MMP – Mushroom Model Publications is based in the UK. All their books are printed by their associate Stratus in English. Stratus is based in Sandomierz Poland.
Stratus does their own line of books in both English and Polish.
This book is hard-bound of 44 pages in 8 ¼” x 11 ¾” page format.
The cover art shows two color side views of the Il-2 posed against an all-white background.
Both are in a wave pattern of dark green and black over a light blue undercarriage.
The top Il-2 has Soviet red stars on the rudder sides and bottoms of the wings. It has a diagonal white band on the rudder over a yellow 3. A white slogan down the sides of the fuselage says in Cyrillic Russian “For Otradnov”. He was a regiment pilot killed in action. Aircraft is how it looked on the Western Front, October 1943 and was flown by A.V. Chuikov with the 606th ShAPE, 214TH ShAD. This profile appears again in the book on page 11.
The bottom Il-2 has large Soviet stars outlined in white on the rudder and fuselage sides, with smaller un-outlined stars below the wings. It has a wide white fuselage band with large white no. 100 on its sides. On the left side, in front of the 100 there is a illustration of music symbols and a diving aircraft in white.
This aircraft was built in Factory No. 18. The gunner’s hinged canopy was removed. The large elaborate drawing on the side reflects the pilot Emelianenko’s passion for music. Small red stars with white outlines were painted on the propeller spinner and main landing gear nacelle tips as well as a Guard Unit badge on the sliding canopy. It is shown as it appeared in August 1943.
Pilot Captain V.B. Emelianenko, HSU was a Moscow Academy of Music student.
This profile appears again in the book on page 40.
The book holds 23 color side view profiles, one color 2-view and 7 color 3-views.
These profiles are printed across the 11 ¾” dimensions of the pages.
THE AUTHOR:
Viktor Povinsky after graduating from the Technical University, worked in it. He is an avid scale modeler, interested in military and aviation history. For the past decade, he has been mostly focused mainly on the Soviet and Russian aircraft and AFVs used in combat by numerous operators, from the period of WWII, through Vietnam and Afghanistan to the recent conflicts in the Ukraine and Syria.
Designing decals and creating color profiles are his other favorite hobbies.
This is one excellent color profile book.
Highly recommended to modellers and aircraft historians alike.
I wish to thank Casemate Publishers, the North American distributor of MMP books and Dr. Roger Wallsgrove editor in Chief of MMP for this book sample.
All MMP book titles can be viewed on their website at:
The Ilyushin Il-2 (Cyrillic: Илью́шин Ил-2) Shturmovik[3] (Cyrillic: Штурмови́к, Shturmovík) was a ground-attack aircraft produced by the Soviet Union in large numbers during the Second World War. With 36,183 units of the Il-2 produced during the war, and in combination with its successor, the Ilyushin Il-10, a total of 42,330 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 Soviet Union's own then-contemporary Polikarpov Po-2 Kukuruznik multipurpose biplane.
To Il-2 pilots, the aircraft was simply the diminutive "Ilyusha". To the soldiers on the ground, it was the "Hunchback", the "Flying Tank" or the "Flying Infantryman". Its postwar NATO reporting name was "Bark".
The Il-2 aircraft played a crucial role on the Eastern Front. When a factory fell behind on its deliveries, Joseph Stalin told the factory manager that they were "as essential to the Red Army as air and bread.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Role: Ground-attack aircraft
Manufacturer: Ilyushin Design Bureau
First flight: 2 October 1939
Introduction to service: 1941
Retired: 1954 (Yugoslavia and Bulgaria)
Primary users: Soviet Air Force, Poland, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia
Produced: 1941–1945
Number built: 36,183
Variants: Ilyushin Il-10
THE BOOK:
MMP – Mushroom Model Publications is based in the UK. All their books are printed by their associate Stratus in English. Stratus is based in Sandomierz Poland.
Stratus does their own line of books in both English and Polish.
This book is hard-bound of 44 pages in 8 ¼” x 11 ¾” page format.
The cover art shows two color side views of the Il-2 posed against an all-white background.
Both are in a wave pattern of dark green and black over a light blue undercarriage.
The top Il-2 has Soviet red stars on the rudder sides and bottoms of the wings. It has a diagonal white band on the rudder over a yellow 3. A white slogan down the sides of the fuselage says in Cyrillic Russian “For Otradnov”. He was a regiment pilot killed in action. Aircraft is how it looked on the Western Front, October 1943 and was flown by A.V. Chuikov with the 606th ShAPE, 214TH ShAD. This profile appears again in the book on page 11.
The bottom Il-2 has large Soviet stars outlined in white on the rudder and fuselage sides, with smaller un-outlined stars below the wings. It has a wide white fuselage band with large white no. 100 on its sides. On the left side, in front of the 100 there is a illustration of music symbols and a diving aircraft in white.
This aircraft was built in Factory No. 18. The gunner’s hinged canopy was removed. The large elaborate drawing on the side reflects the pilot Emelianenko’s passion for music. Small red stars with white outlines were painted on the propeller spinner and main landing gear nacelle tips as well as a Guard Unit badge on the sliding canopy. It is shown as it appeared in August 1943.
Pilot Captain V.B. Emelianenko, HSU was a Moscow Academy of Music student.
This profile appears again in the book on page 40.
The book holds 23 color side view profiles, one color 2-view and 7 color 3-views.
These profiles are printed across the 11 ¾” dimensions of the pages.
THE AUTHOR:
Viktor Povinsky after graduating from the Technical University, worked in it. He is an avid scale modeler, interested in military and aviation history. For the past decade, he has been mostly focused mainly on the Soviet and Russian aircraft and AFVs used in combat by numerous operators, from the period of WWII, through Vietnam and Afghanistan to the recent conflicts in the Ukraine and Syria.
Designing decals and creating color profiles are his other favorite hobbies.
This is one excellent color profile book.
Highly recommended to modellers and aircraft historians alike.
I wish to thank Casemate Publishers, the North American distributor of MMP books and Dr. Roger Wallsgrove editor in Chief of MMP for this book sample.
All MMP book titles can be viewed on their website at: