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Old 5th August 2004 | 10:58
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AerocatS2A
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Joined: Jan 2004
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From: Here and there
There was once a four engined airliner, the Stratocruiser I think, not sure.

Anyway, it had four radial engines. Each engine had four banks of cylinders. The rear bank was highly susceptable to over heating due to not getting enough cooling air. Also, it struggled to maintain height with one engine out! It was essentially a single with four times the chance of an engine failure. An aircraft like that wouldn't get certified these days, but it just goes to show that more isn't necessarily better.

Anecdote provided by an Ernest Gann (sp?) book via many years residing in my foggy memory, any untruths or mistakes have been introduced during the years-of-foggy-memory rather than coming from the book's author.
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