Originally Posted by
FlightlessParrot
I seem to remember long ago that there was also a rather subtle point about damping oscillations (or something in that kind of area of structural stability--I am manifestly out of my technical depth) that was the result of the engines being hung largely forward of the leading age.
Is this a false memory, or was there something like this that was a further, unexpected, benefit of podding?
Properly done, pod mounted engines on the wing can reduce flutter - basically the engines become tuned mass dampers.
Of course, that's in addition to the advantage of supporting the mass of the engine on the structure that's doing the lifting - instead of cantilevering it well after of the lifting portion.
No idea if there was a connection, but during flight testing of the MD-80, they had an unintentionally hard landing - the entire tail assembly (pretty much everything aft of the aft pressure bulkhead) broke off.
