Sikorsky Ilya Muromets

The Sikorsky Ilya Muromets was a large airplane with four engines. It was used by the Russian Empire before and during World War I. The plane was named after a hero from Russian folklore. It was designed by Igor Sikorsky and first appeared in 1913.

The Ilya Muromets had a big body that could carry passengers comfortably. It even had a special room for washing up.

This airplane was also used for military work during the war. It was the world’s first four-engine bomber for long-range attacks. At the start of the war, no other country had a plane that could match it. About sixty of these airplanes were built, and they became an important part of early aviation history.

Design and development

The Ilya Muromets (Sikorsky S-22) was designed by Igor Sikorsky in Saint Petersburg in 1913. It was based on an earlier aircraft called the Russky Vityaz, which helped improve aviation and planes with more engines.

At first, the Ilya Muromets was meant to be a fancy passenger plane. It was the first plane to have a comfortable area for passengers with seats, a small bedroom, a lounge, and even a toilet. It also had heating and lighting. The cockpit was big enough for several people to watch the pilot. Later, during World War I, the plane was changed to be a bomber. It could carry bombs and had places for machine guns to protect itself. The engines were covered with thick armor. This version was made for long flights to bomb and watch enemy positions.

Operational history

When World War I began, only two Ilya Muromets bombers were finished. They joined the Imperial Russian Air Service in August 1914. By December that year, Russia had a squadron of ten bombers. These big planes started bombing missions on February 12, 1915.

German pilots were careful when attacking the Ilya Muromets because the plane had strong defenses and four big engines. The Ilya Muromets achieved many "firsts" in military flying, like the first heavy bombing raids, night bombing, and checking bomb damage from the air. They flew over 400 missions and dropped bombs during the war. By 1917, only four of these bombers were still in use. The design was later sold to British and French governments, and others tried to copy it.

After the Russian Revolution, many Ilya Muromets were lost. Some were used by Ukrainian forces, the Soviet Air Forces, and the White Army during the Russian Civil War. Later, they worked as civilian planes until the last one crashed in 1922.

Variants

The Sikorsky Ilya Muromets had many versions, each with different engines and uses. Early versions like the Ilya Muromets No. 107 were test planes from 1913. The S-22 Type A was used as a practice plane in 1914.

During World War I , bomber versions such as the S-23 Type B and S-25 Series were built. These planes carried bombs and machine guns. Later versions like the S-26 D-1 and S-27 E got better engines. More than 100 of these big, four-engine planes were made and used in the war.

Operators

Military

The Russian Empire and later the Russian Republic used the Sikorsky Ilya Muromets. They were flown by the Imperial Russian Air Service. After the Russian Revolution, the Russian SFSR kept using these planes, and then the Soviet Air Forces took over. In Poland, the Polish Air Force also used some of these aircraft.

Civilian

For civilian use, the Soviet Union Civil Air Fleet used the Sikorsky Ilya Muromets to carry passengers.

Replica

You can see a copy of the Ilya Muromets S-22 at the Monino Air Force Museum near Moscow. This copy was made in 1970 so people could learn about this early airplane.

Specifications (Ilya Muromets Type S-27 E-2)

The Sikorsky Ilya Muromets Type S-27 E-2 was a large airplane built before World War I. It needed eight people to fly it.

The plane was very big. It was 18.8 meters (about 62 feet) long. Its wings stretched 34.5 meters (113 feet) at the top and 26.6 meters (87 feet) at the bottom.

It could fly at up to 130 kilometers per hour (about 81 miles per hour). It could travel a distance of 560 kilometers (about 350 miles). The airplane used four Renault 12F engines. Each engine had 220 horsepower. It could carry up to 800 kilograms (about 1,764 pounds) of bombs. It also had eight machine guns to defend itself.