One weird aircraft article deserves another...
and another...
and another...
and yet one more, for good measure. In recent weeks, we at Simple Flying have either published or are getting ready to publish multiple articles on weird-looking military aircraft, from the Top 5 List linked below to the to the Convair XFY Pogo to the (still pending publication as I write these words). However, , my weird plane articles have been admittedly pretty Western-centric thus far, with the Pogo, Seamew, Osprey, and four of the five planes on the Top 5 list being Western-made (the Sukhoi Su-47 ["Golden Eagle;" NATO reporting name "Firkin"] being the lone Soviet-made exception on that list).
Well, the Soviets were certainly no strangers to producing weird-looking warbirds, so in the interest of "Equal Time" (the USSR was ostensibly an egalitarian society after all), we shall cover one of those weird Soviet warbirds now. Say " " ("hello") to the Ilyshin Il-20 (Горбач/"Hunchback"). Many thanks to my LinkedIn Connection, Charles Schlomm, LTC, USA (Ret,), retired aviator and former driver, for suggesting this topic! The Il-20 made its maiden flight on December 5, 1948.
It was conceived as a heavily armored ground-attack aircraft to replace the Ilyushin Il-10 (NATO reporting name "Beast"), apparently even more heavily armored than the famous Il-2 " " (NATO reporting name "Bark") from the same manufacturer that had become such a legend during the epic World War II (or as the Russians still prefer.
