Il-2 Guards Units/Rastrenin (Osprey)

[Jukka Juutinen]

Anyone seen this book? Reviews? There is an excerpt on Osprey´s site that makes one´s expectations plummet as the claim of unsupercharged AM-38 is still there. And such BS from a graduate of their Air Academy.

[Griffon]

Hello Jukka!

I have awaited this volume for a long time, but wisely I browsed through it before buying it blind.
the text I read, chosen at random throughout the books seems to be quite nice, as are the photos, but thats about it;
the colour profiles look way too flat IMHO, compared to the works of other artists, the planes shown in the profiles are not even given their correct designations (I know that those are IL-2s, but I want to know which sub-type they are as well).

the best part of the book IMHO again are the line drawings of the different IL-2 subtypes on the last pages of this volume.

I do seriously hope that the upcoming MIG-15 Aces of Korea volume is better than this volume.
Do not get me wrong-for anyone interested in the Sturmovik or for starters, this is quite a nice work but for its asking price, it offers too little IMHO

hope this helps
cheers
phil

[Jukka Juutinen]

Phil, I don´t give a fertilizer about colour profiles. It wouldn´t disturb me one moment if all colour profiles in the world turned black tomorrow.

But whether or not an aviation author undersatnd some engine basics matters a lot to me. And if one claims that the AM-38 did not have a supercharger, he is in error.

[Franek Grabowski]

Originally Posted by Griffon

the planes shown in the profiles are not even given their correct designations (I know that those are IL-2s, but I want to know which sub-type they are as well).

I suppose this is because author provided with the correct designation.

Do not get me wrong-for anyone interested in the Sturmovik or for starters, this is quite a nice work but for its asking price, it offers too little IMHO

Shturmovik stands for ground-attack aircraft, nothing else.
I cannot comment on this particular title, but reading Ratrenin/Perov's Il-2 monography, I would say it was one of the best if not best aircraft monography I have ever seen.

[Evgeny Velichko]

Jukka:

What for that supercharger was need? For better characters on hight altitude, yep?

Il-2 - low level flying aircraft, no need supercharger

Griffon:

As far as I know, there are only FEW designations of that aircraft. Not as in polish monography (there were NO "Il-2type3" or "Il-2M" or other BS).

As far as I know:
Il-2 AM-38 with ShVAK, Il-2 AM-38 with VYa,
Il-2 AM-38 two seater, Il-2 AM-38F two seater, Il-2 AM-38F with NS-37,
Il-2 AM-38F with arrow wing.

Also, as far as I know, in almost all documents there are only two subtypes: Il-2 AM-38 (one- or two seater never described) and Il-2 AM-38F. Thats all.

Yes, Franek:

I have several of his books, and I can say that he is a really best author on Shturmovik subject. He have access to factory documents, archive documents of Il-2 regiments, claims, losses, e.t.c. Photoes, films...

[Kari Lumppio]

Hello!

I have thought that the "F" in AM-38F stands for supercharged (Forsirovanniy) !?

Looking forward the Osprey book.


Kari

[Evgeny Velichko]

AM-38 (АМ-38F)

Specification

Cubic capacity, l - 46.66
Compression ratio - 6
Weight, kg - 880
Engine power (takeoff regime), h.p. - 1700
Rotation frequency (takeoff regime), 2350
Engine power at earth level, h.p. - 1500
Engine power at altitude, h.p. - 1500
Specific weight, kg - 0.59
Liter power, h.p./l. - 32.15
Cilynders - 12

AM-38F — made specially for two seater modification of Il-2.

Differences:
- Engine power (takeoff regime), h.p. - 1800
- Ability to work 10 minutes in takeoff regime (at altitude from 0 to 1,5 km)

[Franek Grabowski]

Kari, to supercharge translates as nadduv. Forsirovannyj stands for extended performance (tuned up?).

Evgenij, access to data is one thing, but I like the way he uses it. He clearly shows logical steps in development based on operational experience, for example. Concerning supercharging, the point is that most of engines have single staged centrifugal supercharger, and those destined for high altitude operation have either multi-staged mechanical driven superchargers or turbo-compressors. AM-38 should have a single staged centrifugal supercharger and I believe it is placed at the back of the engine.

[Jukka Juutinen]

Jevgeni, the photo clearly shows the supercharger as Franek just pointed. Thanks for the photo anyway! It shows an interesting feature, double overhead camshafts. Thus the Mikulin is the only WW Two aircraft engine in widespread service to have this feature.

[kurlannaiskos]

there are two correct designations of the Il-2
Il-2 and Il-2KR (KR stands for corrective reconnaissance AKA artillery spotter)
any reference to "Il-2M","Il-2M2","Il-2M3" or "Il-2 type 3" is completely
INcorrect , so please stop using them.

as for color profiles I don't mind them as long as they are done correctly.
there have been so many incorrect profiles done over the years that were done without source photos or just copied from other works.

I'm not really an engine specialist so I will not argue on that point, but having additional power is good for an aircraft like this so it can carry more armaments and ordnance.
such as the change from RS-82 to RS-132 and so on...