Ilyushin Il-10 “Turboprop Version” Background
In the late 1960s, the Chinese PLAAF’s fleet of IL-10 ground-attack aircraft faced a terminal “engine crisis.” The original Soviet AM-42 piston engines had long been out of production, and with the supply of spare parts completely severed, these formidable “Flying Tanks” were being grounded one by one.Refusing to let such a heavily armored platform go to waste, Chinese aviation engineers embarked on an audacious modernization program defined by raw power and ingenuity: the “Piston-to-Turboprop” conversion.In the early 1970s, two experimental prototypes based on the early IL-10 airframe emerged at an airfield in Northwest China. Engineers stripped away the obsolete piston engines and transplanted a monstrous new heart—the WJ-6 (WoJiang-6) turboprop engine. Originally designed for the Y-8 transport, this engine unleashed a staggering 4,250 shaft horsepower (shp), more than doubling the power of the original Soviet engine.To tame this savage increase in power, the aircraft’s profile was radically altered. The nose was significantly shortened, featuring a prominent wide-mouth chin intake and a massive four-blade constant-speed propeller. During flight tests, this resurrected iron beast stunned pilots with its explosive low-altitude acceleration and energy retention. Although the project was eventually sidelined by the mass production of the Nanchang Q-5 jet, this turboprop-powered IL-10 remains the most powerful and legendary “Sturmovik” variant in aviation history—a WWII legend reborn with the heart of a Cold War titan.Nose Inscription: “全力以赴 务歼入侵之敌”(English: GO ALL OUT. CONSUMMATLY DESTROY THE INVADING ENEMIES) Technical Data
Crew - 2
Length - 12.10 m
Height - 4.18 m
Wingspan - 13.4 m
Empty Weight - 5500 kg
Gross Weight - 7300 kg
Max Takeoff Weight - 8500 kg
Powerplant - 1 x WJ-6 Turboprop Engine (3,170 kW)
Max Speed - 520 km/h at Sea Level | 556 km/h at
Service Ceiling - 8500 m
Rate of Climb - 2.3 Minutes to 3,000 m
Range - 900 km（Range with external fuel tanks 1,250 km）
Takeoff Run - 320 m
Landing Run - 580 m
Armament
2 x 23mm Yva-23 Cannons (150 rpg)
2 x 7.62mm ShKAS (750 rpg)
1 x 12.7mm UBT Machine Gun (150 rpg)
2 x 100-1 Bombs
2 x 250-2 Bombs
2 x 57-1（57mm Rockets）19 x 2
2 x 57-1（57mm Rockets）4 x 2
2 x Small Drop Tank（Or 2 x 50kg Bombs ）
(The Chinese turboprop variant can carry all large-caliber rockets from the original Soviet IL-10. Furthermore, due to the addition of extra hardpoints, it can carry a larger number of these large-caliber rockets.) Images
Great, this plane has finally passed. It can be used as China’s A1H, Should be able to appear in the game as a 5.7-6.7 plane.hoping that it will appear in a version in 2026.It just happened that China was short of commercial aircraft between 5.7 and 6.7。
Unfortunately, only two of the WJ-6 turboprop versions of the Il-10 were modified, one of which crashed during a test flight, and the other caught fire during routine maintenance in 1978. In addition to the gun, there are eight weapon hanging points, two bombs can be hung on the belly of the aircraft, four to six rocket launching nests can be hung on the wing, and two auxiliary fuel tanks can be optionally hung on the outside.
Indeed, but it was already a remarkable feat for those vintage airframes to endure for so long, considering they were manufactured in the 1940s and had accumulated nearly 30 years of metal fatigue. The immense torque and thrust generated by the new turboprop engine subjected the aging wing-to-fuselage joints to severe stress—a structural flaw that directly caused the fatal crash of the first prototype. Recognizing this critical vulnerability, the engineering team implemented rigorous and careful maintenance for the second prototype to stave off structural failure. However, after surviving flight risks for a few years, it met a tragic fate on the ground in 1978. While undergoing routine maintenance, a combination of lax hangar oversight and an electrical short or human error sparked an accidental fire, completely incinerating the final testbed and ending the project permanently. As a result, we can no longer see this unique aircraft in museums today, which is a profound pity…
This perfectly shows the incredible spirit of that generation—turning extreme scarcity into strength and squeezing every ounce of potential out of limited, hard-won resources.
