SINGLE ENGINE - COST BENEFITS, RELIABILITY, THRUST...
Issue: 7 / 2009
By Air Marshal (Retd) V.K. Bhatia
...Safety and survivability of twin-engine aircraft both during peace (bird strikes and technical failures) and war (enemy action) have been quoted as the most important driving factors for such a configuration. First, looking at peacetime scenarios, advocates of twin-engine fighters themselves agree on the utmost degree of reliability of modern day jet engines. Take the case of the single-engine Mirage 2000 aircraft. Since its induction a quarter of a century ago, there has been no known case of engine failure causing the loss of a Mirage 2000 in the history of the Indian Air Force. Moreover, modern day engines are being made as bird-proof as possible. On the other hand, during war, the close positioning of engines in all modern aircraft designs would make the twinengine safety factor largely irrelevant if subjected to enemy action (say, for instance, if the engines’ compartment is hit by AAM/SAM weapons)...