Today In History:  12 October  [1940]   --  First flight of the Ilyushin TsKB-57, prototype of the Ilyushin Il-2

The Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik was a ground-attack aircraft produced by the Soviet Union in large numbers during the Second World War. The Il-2 was never given an official name and shturmovik is the generic Russian word meaning ground attack aircraft.

During the war, 36,183 units of the Il-2 were produced, and in combination with its successor, the Ilyushin Il-10, a total of 42,330 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.

-----
This article uses some material and information from Wikipedia.

See the Historical Aviation Film Unit website at http://www.aviationfilm.com to get a new history tidbit every day.