We took off like ducks...

December 16, 1937, two engineers of the SSSZ Air Force Research Institute raised the question of creating an aircraft for the direct aviation support of troops in the conditions of strong enemy air defense. On October 2, 1939, flight tests of the Central Design Bureau-55 began-a double armored attack aircraft Ilyushin at the 39th plant. But, for many reasons, this plane did not go into a large series. Instead, a single IL-2 entered the troops, which during the war had to be redone into double. At the same time, the radio operator shooter was outside the armored body. “They returned secretly, without devices, in the dark, and with a radio operator, which hung on belts...”-wrote Vysotsky after meeting General Kamanin, the commander of the assault corps (21 combat sorties on the IL-2 attack aircraft) and Colonel Beregov (185 sorties of sorties (185 combat sorties ).

IL-2-the most massive plane of World War II, thirty-six thousand cars were produced that became a symbol of that war. He and his modifications fought from 1941 to mid-1953. Then the assault aircraft was recognized as ineffective and was eliminated by the Minister of Defense Marshal Zhukov.

returned to this idea only in 1969, and after 10 years a “Rook” or “scallop” was born, Su-25, capable of survive directly above the battlefield. These planes are still in service, and no one now says that this type of support for troops is not effective!

How would history turn if this experience was in service in the forty -first? P>