Ilyushin Il-8

The Ilyushin Il-8 was a Soviet ground-attack aircraft designed to replace the Il-2. In summer 1942 Sergey Ilyushin was asked for a heavy attack aircraft carrying up to 1,000 kg of bombs, and he chose to scale up the single-engined Il-2 around the more powerful Mikulin AM-42 engine. Two prototypes were built, and the first flew on 10 May 1943. They were significantly faster than the older aircraft but less maneuverable, and they were tested both as attack aircraft and as an artillery spotter variant with less range and better radios. The Il-8 was then redesigned with many features of what became the Il-10, and the Il-8-2 first flew on 13 October 1944, but engine problems delayed testing, state acceptance trials ended only in July 1945, and the Il-10 proved better. It was not ordered into production.