Born into a large peasant family in central Russia, Sergey Vladimirovich Ilyushin started working at a early age to help his parents. At 16 years old, he worked at the St. Petersburg airfield which was playing host to Ruissia's first-ever aviation week. Ilyushin enrolled in the local pilot-training school and in 1917 joined the Red Army and fought in their Civil War. Interested in aircraft design, he entered the Air Force academy, studying day and night to master this new profession. Upon graduation, he was put in charge of overseeing the production of planes for the Red Army. With World War II already in progress, Ilyushin saw it as his duty to personally design airplanes which were so desperately needed by the Red Army. Bombarding the government with pleas, he was eventually given the go-ahead and put in charge of a design bureau at one of the plane building factories. Ilyushin's first plane, which was modified and dubbed as Moskva, established a world record in 1938, flying nonstop from Moscow to Vladivostok and back. The next year, the Moskva flew across the Atlantic to North America. The Ilyushin IL-2 ground attack plane and IL-4 bomber were among Russia's workhorse aircraft, boasting a clear technological edge over its western counterparts. After the war, Ilyushin designed safe and comfortable passenger planes, the IL-12, IL-14 and IL-18 among just a few. In 1962 he designed the IL-62 intercontinental jetliner, capable of ferrying nearly 200 passengers. This plane's arrival in New York created a big splash and was dubbed a "flying saucer." Sergey Ilyushin's talent and hard work won him three gold stars of Hero of Socialist labor and many state awards. Even today passenger and cargo planes with the letters IL can often be seen roaming the skies.
Inducted in 2006.
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