Ilyushin Il-40
| Ilyushin Il-40 | |
|---|---|
 2. prototype |
|
| Type: | Attack aircraft |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
March 7, 1953 |
| Number of pieces: |
2 |
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The Ilyushin Il-40 ( Russian Ильюшин Ил-40 , NATO reporting name : "Brawny" ) was a by OKB Ilyushin developed attack aircraft of the 1950s.
development
Development work on this type began in 1952. As with Ilyushin's earlier attack aircraft designs, the important parts such as the engine and pilot's cabin were heavily armored. Two Mikulin AM-5F jet engines served as propulsion, which was a novelty for this type of aircraft. The flight tests took place in 1953. The Il-40 was not built in series because its tasks could be taken over by the MiG-17 , which had better performance parameters.
The Il-40 was a cantilever low wing aircraft in all-metal shell construction with a cantilever normal tail unit with wings swept by 35 °. The nose wheel landing gear was designed to be retractable. To protect the pilot and the tanks, the central part of the fuselage was provided with 8 mm thick armor. The front window was 134 mm thick, the side windows 65 mm. The total mass of the armor was 1728 kg. The fuel was in six hull containers with a total capacity of 4285 liters and two lower hull containers with a capacity of 550 liters each.
The position of the two AM-5F engines, which were also provided with armor between 4 mm and 16 mm thick, left and right in the wing roots made it possible to install six NR-23 cannons in the nose of the fuselage . An AM-23 cannon was installed to defend the rear hemisphere. A special chamber was provided in the nose of the fuselage, which was to receive the powder gases from the cannons and divert them via flaps. Bombs with a caliber of 50 kg to 500 kg could be attached to four lower hull supports, and bombs up to 100 kg could be attached to four other stations under the wings.
The electronic equipment consisted of the radio station RSIU-4, the on-board intercom SPU-5, the radio altimeter RW-2, the automatic radio compass ARK-5, a friend / foe device and the marker radio receiver MRP-48P.
The crew, consisting of the pilot and the gunner, sat in two separate, non-hermetic cabins, each on a catapult seat. During the shooting tests, however, the powder exhaust produced pompage phenomena on the engines despite the special collecting chamber. As a result, it was decided to install only four NR-23s instead of the six cannons. During the tests it was shown that the engines worked normally with volleys of up to 20 rounds from all cannons or up to 80 rounds from the upper two, but with longer bursts of fire there was an irregular flow of air in the intake ducts.
In general, the machine was easy to handle, even for pilots of medium qualification. It met the state requirements in all points, except for the duration of deployment. It could be used from airfields with a runway length of 1300 to 1400 m.
However, there were also some disadvantages. The view of the pilot and the gunners to the rear was poor, the cabin lacked a heater and the effort required to operate the ailerons was too great. In addition, it was impossible to catapult the pilot through the closed cabin roof in an emergency. It was also criticized that the engines were inadequately secured against the penetration of foreign objects during taxiing as well as during take-off and landing. But especially the problems with the engines when firing made a revision of the draft necessary, and the army wanted the weapon load to be increased to 1400 kg.
In the second prototype, for example, the air inlets of the engines were extended to the tip of the fuselage. In addition, the more powerful Mikulin / Tumanski RD-9W engines were installed, the bomb load increased to 1400 kg, as desired, and the armor reinforced so that it now weighed 1838 kg.
In addition to the two prototypes, the OKB 240 developed the projects for an Il-40U training aircraft, an Il-40R reconnaissance aircraft and an Il-40K artillery control aircraft. However, none of them got beyond the project stage.
The tests, which were carried out by WK Kokkinaki , among others , showed consistently positive results. The army initially showed an interest in taking over this machine. However, this decision was revised again, and in retrospect it is no longer possible to determine who was the initiator of this decision.
Technical specifications
| Parameter | Data |
|---|---|
| crew | 2 |
| length | 16.6 m |
| span | 16.0 m |
| height | 5.9 m |
| Wing area | 47.6 m² |
| Empty mass | 12,190 kg |
| Takeoff mass | normal 16,480 kg maximum 17,470 kg |
| Engines | first prototype: two Mikulin AM-5F second prototype: two Tumanski RD-9W |
| power | first prototype: thrust per 26.5 kN (with post-combustion) second prototype: thrust per 25.5 kN without / 31.5 kN with post-combustion |
| Top speed | 964 km / h at an altitude of 1,000 m |
| Service ceiling | 11,600 m |
| Range | maximum 1,115 km |
| Armament | four rigid 23 mm cannons, two movable 23 mm cannons in the rear defensive stand up to 1,000 kg bombs |
literature
- Nikolai Jakubowitsch: Ilyushin's flying tank . In: Klassiker der Luftfahrt No. 6, 2012, pp. 50–53.
- Николай Якубович: ВОЗВРАЩЕНИЕ "СИЛАЧА" О реактивном штурмовике Ил-40 . In: Крылья родины 02/1999, ISSN 0130-2701 pp. 2–5.
