Used Aircraft Guide: Cessna Skymaster

Twin redundancy without a VMC, but at the expense of some efficiency, speed and quiet.

The idea of the push-pull twin makes such fundamental sense, that it has been applied to aircraft designs in one form or another for nearly 100 years and in literally dozens of models you’ve never even heard of. As recently as 2005, Adam Aircraft tried the idea again with the A500 push-pull piston twin. Like many before it, the airplane was gutted more by market reality than by a fundamental flaw in the idea. Then there’s the Cessna 337, arguably the most commercially successful push-pull attempt, at least in terms of numbers built. And although the 337 Skymaster isn’t the most popular twin ever marketed, it’s done all right for itself and has achieved its primary goal: eliminating asymmetric thrust and simplifying the pilot’s workload in the event of an engine out.