On December 16, 1937, two engineers from the USSR Air Force Research Institute raised the question of creating an aircraft for direct air support of troops in conditions of strong enemy air defense. On October 2, 1939, flight tests of the TsKB-55, a two-seat armored Ilyushin attack aircraft, began at the 39th plant. But, for many reasons, this aircraft did not go into large production. Instead, the troops received the single-seat Il-2, which during the war had to be converted into a two-seat one. At the same time, the radio operator gunner found himself outside the armored hull. “We returned secretly, without instruments, in the dark, and with a radio operator-gunner hanging from his belts...” Vysotsky wrote after meeting General Kamanin, commander of the assault corps (21 combat missions on the Il-2 attack aircraft) and Colonel Beregov (185 combat missions ). Il-2 is the most popular aircraft of the Second World War; thirty-six thousand aircraft were produced, which became a symbol of that war. He and his modifications fought from 1941 to mid-1953. Then attack aircraft were considered ineffective and were liquidated by the Minister of Defense Marshal Zhukov. They returned to this idea only in 1969, and 10 years later the “rook” or “comb”, the Su-25, was born, capable of surviving directly above the battlefield. These aircraft are still in service today, and no one now says that this type of troop support is not effective! How would history have turned out if this experience had been in service in 1941?