I’ve not read anything about the Il-2 taking repeated direct 88mm hits and still flying. In fact reading up on this right now apparently dual 20mm and 37mm AA guns were the most feared by Il-2 pilots as anything below couldn’t penetrate their armor, anything above was far too slow too accurately track the aircraft, but dual or quad guns 20mm’s and single 37mms were enough to destroy an Il-2 with just a few hits.
There’s also the fact while the cabin was heavily armored the glass windshield is still the most vulnerable part and I suspect a missile near-hit could penetrate it.
Seconded the above - German fighters started the war with two wing mounted cannons (20 mm) and two nose mounted machine guns- this was later often changed to one nose mounted cannon and two nose mounted machine guns. This proved ineffective against the IL2-Sturmoviks due to their heavy armor but it was still possible to shoot them down with this armament. You just had to hit the right spots to get enough effect with the limited ammo-supply (usually 100-120 rounds).
However, gun pods for the wings which added back two wing mounted 20 mm cannons were often added in the field for missions where the Il-2 was likely to be encountered, and this usually made short work of the IL-2s.
Machine guns alone was virtually useless.
It is from this that the Sturmovik rightly got a name for durability - however, no aircraft was resistant to direct hits from a 88mm HE shell.
The Stormovik did not carry several tons of armor. If it had, it could not have taken off. It did have some thin armor plate around the engine and cockpit that kept out machine gun bullets, and could stand some hits from a 20 mm cannon. But even a tank would suffer if it by an 88 mm round, depending on how thick the armor was at the point of impact. A plane would just be blown up. Ditto for proximity hits from a missile. It would most likely rip off the rear fuselage, which was no armored at all.
As for putting a Stinger in the back of an old prop plane, no, you don’t have an instant fighter killer.
I suspect there’s a bit of wartime chivalry attached to a dogfight. There used to be a show that analyzed famous dogfights and the winner was usually the one who outmanuvered the loser. In WWI, pilots would give a signal if their guns jammed and their opponent was supposed to stop until the jam was cleared or just fly away if it took too long.
Nobody in all these years has further information on specific full-sphere/all-aspect missiles, such as the Python 5, that are supposed to be able to attack targets behind you?
Braine Ded is correct. Your post was full of errors. The Il-2 had a “bathtub” of 12mm armor to protect the pilot and engine. That’s good armor for an airplane, but even if it was ten times that thick, it still wouldn’t stop a direct hit from an 88mm shell. It might stop shrapnel from multiple 88mm bursts nearby, but it wouldn’t stop a direct hit. Nor did it have “several tons of battleship steel armor”. It had less than one ton of armor.
