ST. PETERSBURG, July 21. /TASS/. Over 40 aircraft and helicopters took part in the rehearsal of the air component of Russia’s Main Naval Parade in St. Petersburg, the press office of the Western Military District reported on Tuesday.

"Over 40 naval aviation combat planes and helicopters that took off from four operational airfields of the Western Military District made a flyover in a single formation of tactical groups distinguished by aircraft of various classes in accordance with their assigned missions over the central part of St. Petersburg in the area of Senate Square. The crews practiced accomplishing the route of the flight, keeping the distance, the speed and the altitude. A Be-200 ‘Alexander Mamkin’ amphibious aircraft flew over the Neva River for the first time," the press office said in a statement.

An Ilyushin Il-2 WWII ground attack plane took part in the rehearsal of the naval parade’s air component and led the flyover over St. Petersburg. Following the results of the plane’s flyover, the naval aviation command made a decision on the Il-2’s participation in the Main Naval Parade on July 26, the statement says.

During the Soviet Union’s 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany, the crew of Valentin Skopintsev and air gunner Vladimir Gumenny fought on this plane within the Northern Fleet’s 46th assault air regiment. In November 1943, they took off on a mission to attack the enemy’s Luostari aerodrome.

During the attack, their plane was severely damaged by the enemy’s anti-aircraft guns and fighter planes and they had to land it on the lake’s ice. Skopintsev managed to bring the wounded air gunner to the base while the plane shortly sank. The plane was found in 2012 and raised from the lake’s bottom. After it was restored in 2017, the plane took to the skies again.

Today this is the world’s sole flying Il-2 plane with its unique combat history and the best by its authenticity.

The rehearsal also involved Su-24M, Su-25, Su-30SM, Su-33, MiG-29K and Su-27 aircraft, an A-50 long-range radar surveillance plane, an Il-78 aerial refueling tanker, a Tu-142MK plane, an Il-38 anti-submarine aircraft, and also Mi-8, Ka-27M, Ka-28, Ka-29 and Ka-31 helicopters.

The Main Naval Parade will take place in St. Petersburg and Kronshtadt on Russia’s Navy Day that will be celebrated on July 26 this year. The Russian Navy is set to involve 46 warships, boats and submarines, naval aviation aircraft and helicopters and over 4,000 personnel in the Main Naval Parade.

Apart from St. Petersburg, the naval parades will be held at the bases of all the Russian Navy’s fleets and flotillas in Severomorsk, Baltiysk, Sevastopol, Kaspiysk, Vladivostok and at Russia’s Tartus naval facility on the Mediterranean coast in Syria.