Editing Tractor configuration (section)

{{Short description|Aircraft design in which the propeller is mounted on the front and pulls the craft forward}}
{{more citations needed|date=October 2011}}

[[File:Cessna 172S Skyhawk SP, Private JP6817606.jpg|thumb|The [[Cessna 172]], a tractor configuration aircraft, and the most popular airplane ever produced]]
[[File:TrislanderImage-comp.jpg|thumb|right|A [[Britten-Norman Trislander]] aircraft (with an unusual 3rd tractor engine on the tail) at [[Guernsey Airport]], Channel Islands]]
[[File: Royal Aircraft Factory FE2b profile.jpg|thumb|The [[Royal Aircraft Factory FE2]] is an example of a pusher configuration]]

In [[aviation]], a '''tractor configuration''' is a propeller-driven fixed-wing [[aircraft]] with its [[Aircraft engine|engine]] mounted with the [[Propeller (aircraft)|propeller]] in front, so that the aircraft is "pulled" through the air. This is the usual configuration;  the [[pusher configuration]] places the airscrew behind, and "pushes" the aircraft forward. Through common usage, the word "propeller" has come to mean any airscrew, whether it pulls or pushes the aircraft.

In the [[History of aviation#Wright brothers|early years of powered aviation]] both tractor and pusher designs were common.{{citation needed|date = March 2014}} However, by the midpoint of the [[World War I|First World War]], interest in pushers declined and the tractor configuration dominated. Today, propeller-driven aircraft are assumed to be tractors unless  stated otherwise.