There's been a decent amount of research that the upper portions of the fuselage are more durable locations for engines. The A-10 for example, has its engines l

There's been a decent amount of research that the upper portions of the fuselage are more durable locations for engines. The A-10 for example, has its engines located up and to the rear for that reason, and the experimental YC-14 [1] also had the engines placed up high, albeit for different reasons, but avoidance of ingestion was definitely a nice side effect. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_YC-14 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_YC-14