TsKB-55P, S.V.Ilyushin

43k drawing of the TsKB-55P armor 'shell', courtesy of Sergey V. Andreev

XVII Party Congress (February 1941) was dedicated almost entirely to defence matters. It resulted in sharp increase of defence budget. And it allowed S.V.Ilyushin to bring back his attack aircraft (instead of the irrelevant TsKB-57 bomber conversion). Trials of TsKB-57 were taken into account, and TsKB-55P (Pushechnij, cannon armed) included a lot of improvements.

• AM-38 engine was lowered by 17.5cm, and pilot's seat was raised 5cm, improving forward view over the nose;
• same fuel tank instead of rear gunner's position as on TsKB-57 (improvement..?)
• side armor was improved;
• canopy was modified with armor glass replacing standard one (front and rear);
• two 20mm ShVAK cannons with 420 rounds/weapon installed instead two 7.62mm ShKAS machine guns, rockets added;
• Wings leading edge was made swept back slightly;
• Tail surfaces made larger by 3.1%;

TsKB-55P was put into production in April 1941 with yet more powerful armament as Il-2.

Predecessor	Production series	Modification
TsKB-57	Il-2 1941	Il-2 1942

• "History of aircraft construction in the USSR", Vol.1 p.246-248;