Ilyushin Il-20 (1948)

Ilyushin Il-20 (1948)

The Ilyushin Il-20 was a Soviet prototype for a heavily armored ground attack aircraft to replace the Ilyushin Il-10. It featured a number of innovative concepts including a cockpit mounted on top of the engine, directly behind the propeller, and wing-mounted autocannon that could be adjusted on the ground to fire level or depressed 23° to allow the aircraft to strafe ground targets while remaining in level flight. However it proved to be slower than the Il-10 and its immature M-47 engine proved to be problematic during flight tests in 1948–49 and it was not placed into production. The test pilots called the aircraft the Gorbach (Hunchback).