Many Russian WWII aircraft ditched electric or hydraulic systems and replaced them with … air. Pneumatics — to operate the flaps, push down landing gear, or start the engine — have a lot of advantages. First of all, air-based systems in combat planes don’t burn. Or at least they don’t burn any different than all this other lazy, non-working air that surrounds us every day! It’s also a relatively light system compared to hydraulics. Pneumatics aren’t lighter than air, but they are close. You do have to pump, compress, store, and transmit the air to the proper locations inside the plane. This shot shows one of the Il-2’s storage bottles, buried in the belly of the plane.
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