Tractor configuration
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In aviation, a tractor configuration is a propeller-driven fixed-wing aircraft with its engine mounted with the propeller in front, so that the aircraft is "pulled" through the air. This is the usual
The Cessna 172, a tractor configuration aircraft, and the most popular airplane ever produced
A Britten-Norman Trislander aircraft (with an unusual 3rd tractor engine on the tail) at Guernsey Airport, Channel Islands
The Royal Aircraft Factory FE2 is an example of a pusher configuration
Synchronization gear
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A synchronization gear was a device enabling a single-engine tractor-configuration aircraft to fire its forward-firing armament through the arc of its spinning propeller without bullets striking the b
Tractor configuration
…Garros and was also used on at least one Sopwith Tabloid of the Royal Naval Air Service. A better solution was a gun synchronizer, which utilized a synchronization gear to shoot only at instants when the line of fire was unobstructed, developed by aircraft pioneer Anthony Fokker and fitted to the Fokker E.I monoplane…
The synchronization gear of a Messerschmitt Bf 109E1 is adjusted (January 1941). A wooden disk attached to the propeller is used to indicate where each round passes through the propeller arc.
Propeller of an Albatros C.III with one blade severed as a result of a faulty synchronization gear or faulty adjustment
The Fokker E.IV prototype's original "three-Spandau" armament, before the portside gun was removed. Production examples had two guns, arranged symmetrically.
Drawing from Euler's 1910 patent for a fixed forward-firing machine gun