I would like to introduce the Sukhoi SU-8 Attack Aircraft from 1943. Up front this design is experimental/prototype but did indeed fly. This was intended to be a long range and heavier alternative to the IL-2 but As history goes, as Germans were pushed back, the need for such range evaporated.
This plane is a beast, put lightly. This is a twin-engine Attack aircraft that was designed to work at great distances and at or behind front lines. As such it was heavily armored... very heavily armored. 10-15mm surrounding the pilot and gunner + armored skin, 64mm armored glass on frontal cockpit, up to 10mm armor surrounding the two Shvetsov M-71 engines, Oil tanks and coolers and the fuel tanks, which are also self sealing and pressuized with neutral gas adding to a ridiculous 1,680kg of steel armor plating alone. This protection was rated for protection from up to 13mm MGs.
The aircraft structure was mixed. Consisting of Steel and aluminum wings with plywood extremities, Armored steel front fuselage, Aluminum center fuselage, wooden monocoque tail assembly save for the metal Elevator and rudders. The Cockpit was high mounted for excellent visibility. Offensive Armament was overwhelming. 4x 45mm NS-45 Cannons With 50 Rounds per gun accompanied by a quartet of 7.62 Shkas per wing with 650rpg for 23.84kg/sec burst mass. It could carry 10x RS-82 or RS-132 Rockets and a pair of 500kg bombs, for a load of 1400kg.
Defensive armament was 1 UB 12.7mm with 200 rounds in a ventral turret and 7.62 with 500 rounds in dorsal position. You might be thinking that this thing must be extremely unwieldy... But performance is admirable, Relatively Light wing loading coupled with a sleek design, Leading edge slats, and powerful engines add up to a Climb rate of 7.4m/s, Top speed of 550kmh at 4600m, and perhaps most impressively, a 25 Second sustained turn time thanks to the automatic slats and wing loading. Range came to a respectable(by eastern front stadards)1500km
many thanks for a great mod s don