Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.9

The Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.9 was a British experimental reconnaissance aircraft of World War I. == Design == The intention of the designers was to combine the high performance of tractor configuration aircraft with a good field of fire for the observer's machine gun, as provided by pushers. It was therefore decided to modify an example of the B.E.2c by adding a small wooden box (which soon gained the nickname "pulpit") in front of the aircraft's propeller, which would accommodate a gunner armed with a Lewis gun on a trainable mount.

Source: Wikipedia — Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.9 (CC BY-SA 4.0)