Nose gunner

A nose gunner or front gunner is a crewman on a military aircraft who operates a machine gun or autocannon turret in the front, or "nose", of the airplane.

Early in WWI, nose-gunners enjoyed a period of popularity on pusher-engined fighters; a gunner would be stationed in the nose, covering the arc ahead of the aircraft.

Once the synchronizer was invented, allowing a fixed machine gun to fire through the propeller, the pusher-engined fighter fell into disuse, although nose guns were still commonly seen on multi-engine bomber aircraft.

In its basic form, this was a second crew member behind the pilot with a single machine gun, as was seen all through WWI and onward; more complex aircraft might have a gunner located in the actual tail of the aircraft, giving a wider arc of fire and freeing them from the danger of hitting their own tail surfaces.

), up to power operated manned turrets (late B-24, Avro Lancaster, Vickers Wellington), or even basic remotely controlled turrets such as seen on late B-17's, and more complex ones such as those used on the He 177 and the B-29 (which had a gun-aiming sight, but no actual guns in the nose).