Il-2 Sturmovik

The Il-2, was truly a good aircraft. This plane carried armor nearly un-heard of on an aircraft, and was effective in its role of low-level ground attack. Though some pilots found out the planes weakness' ( less armor on under right hand side of engine, and early variants had no rear gunner ) the aircraft and its variants performed spectacularly for the soviet air force. It even had parachute mines that could be deployed behind it to hit a persuing aircraft. The armament was two 23mm cannon, one 20mm cannon, and two machine guns, plus 2,207 pounds of bombs. It had a range of only 496 miles, but was a support aircraft, not a heavy bomber, so this made no difference. It had a top speed of 329mph, at an altitude of 7,058ft. Power was provided by a Mikulin AM-42 12-cylinder V, liquid cooled 2,000hp engine. The massive armor was in part due to the structure of the plane itself, and then armor piled on top of it, making it almost immune to anything below 23mm in the most armored spots. In 1943, during the battle of Kursk, soviet Il-2's decimated the german tanks, destroying numbers in the hundreds. This plane was the soviet Stuka, but was even more effective. It could carry parachutable or non-parachhutable anti-tank bombs, many numbers of them, and would drop them over armored columns. This was a very effective aircraft, one of the few soviet planes i would vouch for.