The Cessna 337 Skymaster is arguably the most commercially successful so-called 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 just fine for itself and has achieved its primary goal: eliminating asymmetric thrust and simplifying the pilot’s workload in the event of an engine out. Unfortunately, as you’ll see in our accident scan on page 30, some Skymaster pilots find plenty of other ways to NTSB fame.
Still, 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. Remember back in 2005 when Adam Aircraft tried the idea again with the A500 push-pull piston twin? We do, and like many before it, it failed more by market reality than by a fundamental flaw in the idea. We really wanted that one to work.