A British WWI-era F.E.2b pusher. The propeller is just behind the wing.

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. Side view of a Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2b. ... Side view of a Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2b. ... F.E.2b in profile. ... A Japan Airlines Boeing 747-400. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... An aircraft constructed with a tractor configuration has the engine mounted with the propeller facing forwards such that the aircraft is pulled through the air, as opposed to the pusher configuration in which the propeller faces backwards and the aircraft is pushed through the air. ...

Many early aircraft were pushers, including the Wright Flyer and the Curtiss plane used by Eugene Ely for the first ship take-off. 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.) The Wright Flyer The Wright Flyer (often retrospectively referred to as Flyer I and occasionally Kitty Hawk) was the first powered aircraft designed and built by the Wright Brothers. ... Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company went public in 1916 with Glenn Curtiss as president. ... Eugene Burton Ely (October 21, 1886 - October 19, 1911) was an aviation pioneer, credited with the first shipboard aircraft take off and landing. ... Combatants Allies: • Serbia, • Russia, • France, • Belgium, • British Empire and Dominions, • United States, • Italy, • ...and others Central Powers: • Germany, • Austria-Hungary, • Ottoman Empire, • Bulgaria Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 5 million military, 3 million civilian (full list) 3 million military, 3 million civilian (full list) {{{notes}}} World War I... The Vickers F.B.5 Gunbus was the first operational British aircraft purpose-built for air-to-air combat, making it debatably the worlds first true fighter aircraft. ... F.E.2b in profile. ... The Airco DH.2 was a single-seat biplane pusher aircraft which operated as a fighter during the First World War. ... Fokker 100 of British Midland Airways Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker. ... The interrupter gear, more properly (and correctly) known as a synchronisation gear, was a triggering device attached to a fighter aircrafts machine gun so that it would fire only at certain times. ...

The pusher configuration on a Rutan Long-EZ home-built aircraft.

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. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1800x1255, 542 KB) Rutan Long-EZ 160 (UK registration G-WILY) taking off at Kemble Airfield, Gloucestershire, England. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1800x1255, 542 KB) Rutan Long-EZ 160 (UK registration G-WILY) taking off at Kemble Airfield, Gloucestershire, England. ... The word Nacelle is derived from the Old French nacele, which means a small boat or dinghy, and was in turn derived from the Latin navicella. ... In an aircraft, the fuselage is the main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo. ...

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 configuration, combining the tractor and pusher configuration. Possibly the most extreme example of the type is the Convair B-36, the largest bomber ever operated by the United States, which wing-mounted six 3,800 hp Pratt & Whitney Wasp Major radial engines in a pusher configuration, augmented in the B36D by four General Electric J47 turbojets. The Saab 21 was also initially built as a pusher since jet engines were not be available. The Supermarine Walrus was a reconnaissance amphibian designed by R. J. Mitchell and operated by the Fleet Air Arm. ... A DeHavilland Single Otter floatplane in Harbour Air livery A seaplane is an aircraft designed to take off and land (correctly, though less commonly, alight) upon water. ... The Short S. 19 Singapore name was given to developments of the original long range record breaking long range prototype. ... Dornier Do 335 push-pull aircraft. ... A Convair B-36D in flight The Convair (Consolidated Vultee) B-36 was a strategic bomber operated solely by the United States Air Force. ... Pratt & Whitney Wasp Major (sectioned) The Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major was a large radial piston aircraft engine designed and built during World War II. It was the last of the Wasp family and the culmination of its makers piston engine technology, but the war was over before... Radial engine of a biplane. ... The General Electric Company, or GE (NYSE: GE) is a multinational technology and services company. ... A Pratt and Whitney turbofan engine for the F-15 Eagle is tested at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, USA. The tunnel behind the engine muffles noise and allows exhaust to escape. ... The Saab 21 was a fighter/attack aircraft from SAAB that first took to air in 1943. ...

The disadvantage of the pusher configuration concerns safety of the occupants in a crash or crash-landing. The configuration commonly places the engine behind the pilot and any occupants. Should the aircraft crash, there is then a danger that the relatively heavy engine will drive forward under its own momentum into the occupied section.