A close up view of the central fuselage section of a Royal Aircraft Factory RE8 reconnaissance aircraft, 1917 (c)

Photograph, World War One, Air Operations (1914-1918), 1917 (c).

The pilot, Lieutenant William Carter, sits in the cockpit and the unidentified observer sits in the gunner's position facing the tail, behind the mount of the Lewis gun. The RE8 was one of the standard British reconnaissance and artillery spotting aircraft from mid-1917 to the end of the war. Over 4,000 were built and they were armed with a synchronised forward-firing .303 inch Vickers machine gun and a Lewis gun on a Scarff ring in the observer's cockpit.

From an album containing 96 photographs relating to Lieutenant William Charles Carter who served in the Artists' Rifles The London Regiment from 1913 and 13 Squadron Royal Flying Corps 1917-1918.