Soviet aircraft designer who created the famous Il-2 Stormovik armoured attack aircraft used by the Soviet air force during World War II. After the war he designed civil aircraft: the Il-12 twin-engined passenger aircraft (1946), the Il-18 Moskva four-engined turboprop transport (1957), the Il-62 turbojet passenger carrier (1962), and the Il-86 airbus, which made its first flight in 1976.

Ilyushin was mobilized in the Russian army in 1914. He transferred to the army air arm and received a pilot's certificate in 1917. He later joined the Red Army, and in 1922 he entered the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy, Moscow, graduating in 1926. He then served as chief of design at various military and civilian aviation institutes. On April 21, 1938, while commuting by plane, he was forced to make a solo emergency landing, suffering injuries that left his forehead permanently scarred. He eventually became a lieutenant general in the Soviet Red Army engineering technical service and a professor at his old academy. He was awarded three Hero of Soviet Labour medals as well as the Order of Lenin.