Forgive a former fixed wing maritime flier inquiring...
Much is made of the supposed enhanced safety through twin engined helicopter operations offshore. But if all the power from both/either engines go through a much 'weaker link' in the chain - a single gear box and rotor head - then is the latter negating the benefits of the former?
How many North Sea twins do come home on one engine?
And if the answer is 'very few', is the added gearbox complexity of feeding power from two engines (to mitigate those 'very few') through one MGB and rotorhead introducing more potentuial catastrophic failure points?
Is there a difference in frequency of MGB failures between single and multi engined helicopters?