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You reminded me of the tale of the Ford trimotor. The way I recall it from aerospace design class (20 years ago) was that any single engine out meant the aircraft couldn’t climb. Hence, the probability of a serious incident was 3 times as likely as for a single engine design. I tried to google this just now and came up blanks.

Oh well, I thought it was going to be entertaining and factually accurate enough. Now I am questioning my memory.

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They still fly these 92 year old planes out at Oshkosh, and I took a short flight in one while I was there. Now I wish I’d asked more questions since their volunteers are pretty knowledgeable.

Also interesting to note that a two-engine craft ordinarily has 200% the power it needs to operate, whereas a three-holer might only have 150%.

That might have been what I am mis-recalling then, thanks! Our proff. still managed to turn it into something like a proverb of wisdom. (More engines not necessarily = more reliability)

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