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Introduction:
The Ilyushin Il-102 was the historical design bureau’s last attempt at making a modern attack aircraft, though still heavily inspired by its older Sturmoviks. Combining an unusual appearance, advanced armament and an old-fashioned tail turret, this competitor to the Sukhoi Su-25 would make for a cool addition to Soviet top tier.
Specifications:
Crew: 2 (pilot, gunner)
Dimensions
Length: 17.75 m
Wingspan: 16.90 m
Height: 5.08 m
Wing area: 63.5 m²
Mass
Empty: 13,000 kg
Normal take-off: 18,000 kg
Max take-off: 22,000 kg
Internal fuel weight: 3,700 kg
Propulsion
Engines: 2× RD-33I non-afterburning turbofans
Thrust: 2× 52.17 kN (5,320 kgf)
Performance
Maximum speed: 950 km/h
Flight ceiling: 10,000 m
Turning radius: 400 m
Armament
Offensive: Twin 30mm 9A-4071K external cannon, can be controlled to fire down to a 15° angle (500 rounds)
Defensive: Twin GSh-23L cannon in a remotely controlled tail turret (600 rounds)
Suspended: 16 max hardpoints
- 6 wing bomb bays (250 kg bombs on each)
- 6 underwing pylons
- 2 pylons under fuselage
- 2 internal stores released by removing the 30mm cannons
Weapons on hardpoints:
- R-60M or R-73 air-to-air missiles
- Kh-23, Kh-25, Kh-29 air-to-ground missiles
- Kh-58 anti-radiation missile
- Unguided bombs, 100-500 kg yield
- Rocket pods (57mm, 80mm or 130mm caliber) in 6 underwing pylons
- UAK-23-250 or SPPU-1-23 gunpods
Equipment
- Avtomat-F flare/chaff dispenser (unknown number)
- K-36L ejection seats (pilot’s ejection automatically activates gunner’s seat too, but gunner can eject independently)
Armor
- Cockpit fully armored
- Canopies made of armored glass
- Engines and fuel supply system partly armored
History:
In the late 1960s, there was a resurgence in Soviet interest for an attack aircraft. The Ilyushin Design Bureau, based on experience in the wars of Vietnam and the Middle East, proposed a two-seat model called the Il-42 powered by two AM-5F turbojets. The Il-42 wasn’t entirely new, but a modernization of Ilyushin’s older Il-40 jet attacker from the early 1950s which saw a limited production run but never entered service.
In 1969, a design competition for attack aircraft was announced in the USSR, with the Sukhoi, Yakovlev, Mikoyan and Ilyushin bureaus all participating. They respectively presented the T8, Yak-25LSh, MiG-21LSh and Il-42, with the winner being Sukhoi’s T8: the prototype that would eventually become the famous Su-25. However, Ilyushin did not end development of its project under G.V. Novozhilov. The Il-42 received a reshaped nose for better visibility, stronger weapons and more powerful engines, as well as a new designation: the Il-102.
Construction of the prototype attack aircraft progressed slowly, in large part due to its unofficial nature. The Il-102 prototype was completed in early 1982, and though it received support from the Air Force Commander-in-Chief and the Air Industry Minister, it was staunchly opposed by Defense Minister Dmitry Ustinov, who preferred Sukhoi’s promising design. However, using the designation OES-1 for “experimental aircraft-1”, its first test flight took place on September 25, 1982 in Belarus, away from prying eyes.
The Il-102 was a highly unusual design for its era, as it was reminiscent of a World War II-era Il-2 Sturmovik. Its most distinctive characteristic was the presence of two cockpits, one for the pilot and one for the tail gunner to remotely control a GSh-23L. The idea was that the effectiveness of missiles would be reduced by jamming, countermeasures, high maneuverability and the presence of a second person to watch the rear half for incoming missiles. Therefore, the attacking planes would resort to guns and have to face fire from the tail cannon. The plane also received armor plating around the cockpits, engines and fuel supply.
For all its seemingly outdated characteristics, the Il-102 still utilized some state-of-the-art technologies. The two engines used, the RD-33I, were a simplified, non-afterburning version of the turbofans used on the MiG-29. This appears to have made the plane quite maneuverable with a tight 400m turn radius. At the same time, it could fire a variety of modern weapons, including the R-60M and R-73 infrared missiles as well as a variety of AGMs.
The Il-102 completed 250 test flights between 1982-1984, showing no serious defects. However, by that point the Su-25 was already in production and the Ilyushin had no serious advantages, other than the controversial tail gunner. An attempt was made to resume the project in 1986, but failed. The aircraft’s only public appearance was in the 1992 Moscow Air Show. Since then, it has been stored in the Gromov Flight Research Institute in Zhukovsky, where it was installed as a monument in 2005.
Gallery:
Gallery
Twin forward-firing 30mm cannon.
Twin defensive 23mm cannon.
Il-102 cockpit.
X-ray view showing all major components.
A comparison of Ilyushin’s jet powered Sturmoviks, as well as two other famous modern strike jets.
Sources: