Originally Posted by
tdracer
No idea what the cargo aircraft in question was, but during the US involvement in Viet Nam, I remember hearing stories of a particular USAF cargo aircraft - piston engine powered - that had such a horrid engine MTBF that losing an engine somewhere on the trip from Hawaii to Vietnam was not uncommon. Since the US airbases were a regular target of rocket and mortar attacks, the crews would rather risk a 3-engine departure from South Viet Nam rather than having to stay there long enough to perform and engine change...
Probably the Lockheed Constellations operated by various civilian supplemental airlines, in addition to the military, at that time. The Wright Turbo-Compound engines were never really got to grips with.