5 ms·
You reminded me of the tale of the Ford trimotor. The way I recall it from aerospace design class (20 years ago) was that any single engine out meant the aircr
by tobmlt 5y ago
You reminded me of the tale of the Ford trimotor. The way I recall it from aerospace design class (20 years ago) was that any single engine out meant the aircraft couldn’t climb.
Hence, the probability of a serious incident was 3 times as likely as for a single engine design. I tried to google this just now and came up blanks.
Oh well, I thought it was going to be entertaining and factually accurate enough. Now I am questioning my memory.
- pininja 5y agoThey still fly these 92 year old planes out at Oshkosh, and I took a short flight in one while I was there. Now I wish I’d asked more questions since their volunteers are pretty knowledgeable.
- sk5t 5y agoAlso interesting to note that a two-engine craft ordinarily has 200% the power it needs to operate, whereas a three-holer might only have 150%.
- tobmlt 5y agoThat might have been what I am mis-recalling then, thanks! Our proff. still managed to turn it into something like a proverb of wisdom. (More engines not necessarily = more reliability)