Ilyushin Il-20 (1948)

Il-20
Il-20 schematic
Role	Ground-attack aircraft prototype Type of aircraft
Manufacturer	Ilyushin
First flight	5 December 1948[1]
Number built	1

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 was slower than the Il-10, and its M-47 engine was problematic in flight tests in 1948–49. It was not placed into production. The test pilots called the aircraft the Gorbach (Hunchback).^[2]