The
Ilyushin Il-2 (
Cyrillic: Илью́шин Ил-2)
Sturmovik[3] was a
ground-attack aircraft (
Cyrillic: Штурмови́к,
Šturmovík) produced by the
Soviet Union in large numbers during
the Second World War. With 36,183 units of the Il-2 produced during the war, and in combination with its successor, the
Ilyushin Il-10, a total of 42,330
[4] were built, making it the single most produced military aircraft design in aviation history, as well as one of the
most produced piloted aircraft in history along with the American postwar civilian
Cessna 172 and the Soviet Union's own then-contemporary
Polikarpov Po-2 Kukuruznik multipurpose biplane.