Ilyushin IL-40 (Brawny)

History

After World War II (1939-1945), the role of ground attack remained a major consideration for world air forces. It was envisaged that the next war would take place in Europe between the Soviet Empire and the European powers and the United States.

What followed was a massive ground war involving a large number of tanks, and to counter this threat, specialized ground attack aircraft were still required.

Jet fighters were first used in combat on the front lines (during the Korean War) in the early 1950s, and bombers were quickly surpassed by jet designs. The extra work of turbojets means they become more efficient, compact, reliable and powerful.

Single-engine jets became commonplace, proving themselves in such outstanding designs as the Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 and the North American F-86 "Sabre" series.

The Soviet Air Force began work on a new ground attack platform in 1950, followed by Ilyushin, with a focus on jet engines. Until now, the company has been best known for its contributions to the WWII-era two-seat propeller-powered IL-2 "Sturmovik", which was more or less an armored flying tank.

For the new design, the engine unit became two Mikulin AM-5 turbojets, producing 4,740 pounds of thrust, housed in a nacelle with a mostly tubular metal fuselage. The cockpit is located aft of a long nose cone assembly, the stern uses a traditional single-blade rudder approach, with the horizontal plane in the middle.

The wing main aircraft is swept 35 degrees back and features large boundary layer fencing for high speed control. The all-wheeled and fully retractable tricycle landing gear adds a state-of-the-art element to the design. Three dive brakes improve control over attacking maneuvers.

The crew consisted of two people who sat side by side with the planned full cockpit armor due to the low altitude at which the plane was intended to attack. Each crew position should also have an ejection seat.

The proposed weapon is a 6 x 23 mm Nudelman-Rikhter NR-23 series gun mounted in the nose section. An additional NR-23 system would be mounted on the tail turret to protect the aircraft's more vulnerable Six from interception. In addition to this fixed set of standard armament, the aircraft was designed with the ability to carry bombs in mind, supported by in-wing bomb bays and underwing brackets. Underwing bombs can be replaced with air-to-surface missiles or fuel tanks (the latter increasing the range). Much of this armor kit is based on Ilyushin's experience with his classic IL-2: this cannon and machine gun armed beast produced over 36,000 examples between 1941 and 1945 and supported air-to-surface missiles.

Its stern was guarded by machine guns. The IL-2 proved to be the ultimate "tank smasher" and ground attack aircraft for the Soviet Air Force of WWII.

In January 1952, Ilyushin completed IL-40 and submitted for possible testing. The authorities liked its promise and commissioned the construction of a prototype. The completed prototype successfully completed its maiden flight on March 7, 1953. By the end of the month, the artillery armament was assembled and actively tested, but that's where the IL-40 showed its critical flaw - firing six guns would destroy the engine so that the system would fail due to the artillery ingesting propellant. Replaced four AM-23 series guns and installed new gun mounts.

The ignition port has been moved further forward to better deflect the exhaust gas away from the nozzle inlet.

This work greatly delayed the plan, as the aircraft was not handed over to the Soviet Air Force for formal testing until early 1954. To further address the artillery issue, a new prototype design was implemented, with the artillery relocated to a position under the nose, and the engine air intakes significantly extended beyond the original nose of the aircraft with additional ducts.

Tumansky also delivered an improved AM-5F engine, the RD-9V, at this time, which promises to improve the jet's overall performance.

The Soviet authorities were persuaded by this modification and financed a second IL-40 prototype, the "IL-40P". The aircraft made its own maiden flight on February 14, 1955, and subsequent tests showed it to be better than the original product.

The Luftwaffe was forced to order about forty strike platforms. However, before production actually began (and after five production-quality examples had been completed), the IL-40 program was abandoned by the Air Force in lieu of changing battlefield doctrine and embracing the growing reliance on nuclear weapons.

Dedicated ground attack aircraft.

During the short-term program, a total of 7 IL-40-related aircraft were produced. Several other forms, including a torpedo bomber (IL-40T) and an artillery reconnaissance aircraft (IL-40K), were also planned but failed. The IL-40 re-emerged in the second half of the 1960s as a competitor (like the IL-102), but lost out to the T-8 which would later become a rival Sukhoi. The IL-102 made its first flight in 1982, with a total of 367 test flights, and was well received by test pilots.

The T-8 evolved into the Su-25 "Frogfoot", a special close air support (CAS) platform that is still in service with the Soviet Air Force to this day (2015).

The IL-40 has been in service long enough to earn the NATO nickname "Brawny".

Specification

Basic

Production

Roles

Dimensions

Weight

Performance

Performance

Armor

Changes