Originally Posted by
Stribeck
From fundamental aerodynamics, the answer is definitely yes.
The position of the engines cause increased drag at high AoA, which in turn causes a pitching moment around the CG. The reason for this is that the protruding engines cause the projected frontal area (Ap) to increase with pitch, and drag is proportional to Ap. The effect should be symmetric, since this is drag and not lift, but I guess it is unusual to see high values of negative AoA. It would be interesting to see how strong this effect is at a few degrees negative AoA.
Yes, high values of negative AoA are unusual but exactly in situations like that any additional drag may, well, break the camel back.