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IL-1 Fighter

In August 1943, after the IL-2I state tests showed the complete impossibility of using this aircraft for air battles, Stalin expressed a desire to still get a fighter with similar characteristics, but suitable for operational use.

The first flight on the IL-1 was performed on May 19, 1944 as always by Kokkinaki. The aircraft had neither bomb bay nor guides for missiles - it was a “clean” fighter. Thanks to all the modifications made, with the full launch mass, the IL-1 reached a speed of 580 km / h at an altitude of 3260 m and a distance of 1000 km. Load 1 m? wings did not exceed 177 kg, so that he could make a 360-degree turn at 1000 m for 20 s, which was at the level of the fighters of that time (For comparison, Soviet aircraft (La-5FN, Yak-9T) as well as German Me-109G-2 performed the same turn in about 19–21 pp. With the exception of the Yak-3, which required 18 pp. All these data refer to an altitude of 1000 m, at other heights these indicators slightly changed).

Regarding its future descendant (IL-10), the new aircraft had a shorter fuselage, reduced wing and a slightly different shape of the fuselage in its middle part. Armament consisted of 2 guns VYA-23 caliber 23 mm. Its main disadvantage was the low climb rate of only 10 m / s. as a result, the aircraft required 8.3 minutes to “crawl” to an altitude of 5000 m. This, and the lack of speed, would have meant that if it was necessary to fight with enemy fighters, the units armed with this type of aircraft would always be unprofitable positions. Although from the very beginning the aircraft was built as a fighter - a bomber hunter, its characteristics could no doubt be improved (surely there was an opportunity to overcome the 600 km / h speed barrier), it is doubtful that this aircraft would have been used for its intended purpose in the second half of 1944 when German bombers almost ceased to appear over the front line. Probably the IL-1 was an airplane, which in that situation would be more useful for Germany to fight with Allied bomber aircraft than the Soviet Union to fight Germany.

Having a new engine (AM-42 with an AB-5L-24 propeller with a diameter of 3.6 m) and a resolution from management to start designing an entirely new aircraft, the Ilyushin Bureau enthusiastically began this work, setting aside all other topics. However, in this case, the starting point for the creation of a new car was the construction of the IL-2, namely, its fuselage. Having new results on the tunnel cooling system for radiators of water and oil, obtained during the work on the IL-8, the problem of protecting the cooling system from damage caused by anti-aircraft fire or an attack by enemy fighters was very elegantly solved.

A high degree of safety was achieved by placing radiators of water and oil in an armored body, in its lower part, between the wings and supplying air to them through special curved canals. Another innovation was to make the front part of the fuselage and the cabin extremely aerodynamic shape, as well as the use of metal as a material for the manufacture of steering wheels. The wings were completely new, as well as the landing gear cleaning system, similar (and perhaps even copied) to such a system on the American P-40 fighter. The wingspan of the IL-1 was less by almost a meter, and its profile and design are well thought out and technological.

The first flight on the IL-1 was performed on May 19, 1944 as always by Kokkinaki. The aircraft had neither bomb bay nor guides for missiles - it was a “clean” fighter. Thanks to all the modifications made, with the full launch mass, the IL-1 reached a speed of 580 km / h at an altitude of 3260 m and a distance of 1000 km.

Having achieved superiority over the Luftwaffe and having the opportunity at this time to get new, good fighters, the Red Army air forces abandoned aircraft of this type long before the tests, so even the good results of state tests could not "save" the IL-1. At the time of sentencing the concept of an armored fighter, the Air Force simultaneously expressed interest in a new assault aircraft designed on the basis of the IL-1. Since for Il'yushin this was not a surprise, and work on such an aircraft had been going on since the spring of 1943, the “deputy” IL-2 appeared even earlier than the IL-1.

Considering that the government first ordered the IL-1, and only later the same work was approved on its Il-2 assault counterpart, it should be thought that the alteration of the IL-1 drawings in its two-seat version did not give the designers any problems. But it only seemed so in theory for in reality, the first were the drawings of the attack aircraft, from which the fighter then arose! It is likely that this "scam" was done without the knowledge of the "top". The best proof of this situation is the fact that the ready-made blueprints of the attack aircraft arrived at the directorate of Plant No. 18 with four Ilyushin Design Bureau engineers already at the end of July 1943, that is, after the IL-2I project was rejected, and even before the first flight IL-8. In addition, the Directorate immediately ordered the main departments of the plant to prepare for mass production, when only three prototypes were being built!

Thus, knowing these facts, one can easily understand why the IL-1 was so much like the IL-10, why it could not have the best characteristics, and why - despite the fact that it was ordered earlier - appeared later than the IL-10.