Home > Pusher configuration
A British WWI-era F.E.2b pusher.An aircraft constructed with a pusher configuration has the engine mounted with the propeller facing backwards such that the aircraft is "pushed" through the air, as opposed to the tractor configuration in which the aircraft is "pulled" through the air.
Many early aircraft were pushers including the Wright Flyer. In the early years of the First World War pushers were favoured by the British because they enabled a forward-firing gun to be used without being obstructed by the arc of the propeller. Such aircraft included the Vickers F.B.5 Gunbus , the Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2 and the Airco DH.2. ( Germany did not have the same requirement due to the early development of Fokker's interrupter gear.)
Single-engine pushers usually had the engine mounted on the centreline at the rear of the aircraft's nacelle. Such aircraft had no fuselage, the tail section being mounted on a framework that cleared the propeller.
With the widespread adoption of interrupter gear, the benefits of the pusher configuration were lost and the tractor configuration was favoured. Pushers did not become extinct after the war but were a minority of new aircraft designs. The 1930s Supermarine Walrus was a seaplane with a single pusher engine. Large multi-engine aircraft, such as the Short Singapore , continued to be built with a push-pull configurationDornier Do 335 push-pull aircraft. An aircraft constructed with a push-pull configuration has a mixture of forward-mounted ( tractor) propellers and backward-mounted ( pusher) propellers. An early example of a "push-pull" aircraft was the Caproni Ca., combining the tractor and pusher configuration. Possibly the most extreme example of the type is the Convair B-36The Convair B-36 (officially named the "Peacemaker", but the name is rarely used) was an American strategic bomber aircraft, and the largest bomber ever flown by the United States. The design process began in 1941, the first prototype flew in 1945, and th, the largest bomber every operated by the United StatesThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in, which wing-mounted six 3,800 hp Pratt & Whitney Wasp Major radial enginebiplane The radial engine is a configuration of internal combustion engine, commonly used in aircraft, in which the cylinders are arranged pointing out from a central crankshaft like the spokes on a wheel. The cylinders are connected to the crankshaft wits in a pusher configuration, augmented in the B36D by four General ElectricGeneral Electric Company or GE is a multinational technology and services company, one of the world's largest corporations. While it still uses its full name for legal purposes, it prefers to use the abbreviation GE in the names of its component businesse J47 turbojets.
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