Yeh but are you talking Deisel-8s or 707s Con? And 727s
and DC9s have thrust vectors close together, so the assy
effect would be diddlys.
Pod mounted engines only with turbo-jet engined aircraft, 727 and business jets. With business jets, there have been more than a few occasions of people going off the side of the runway when only one reverser deploys and the crew does not react quick enough. I saw a Westwind go off the side of the runway in Aspen one day because of that. Right reverser came out the left one remained stowed.
And a 'Hi ho Sliver' and off into a snowbank they go. Minor aircraft damage, but severe pilot ego damage.
I have a photo of a G-IV off the side of the runway in Vail due to the same problem, I'll look for it.
And when I was with the Marshal Service our only
real Deputy US Marshal pilot managed to run a Sabre 80 off the runway into the grass, collapsing the nose gear before they stopped. But in this case one of the reversers was in-op and had been pinned closed. After this accident, we changed the 'One reverser In-op' procedure to pin both reversers closed.
There was really no reason to pin both, we always had problems with the reversers on the Sabre 80s. One just had to slowly add power after the working reverser opened. But, the weakest link has to accounted for, so the procedure was changed.