On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 16:20:57 GMT, C Kingsbury wrote:
On the negative, engines in the rear will eat into cabin space. I also
suspect that there are weight distribution issues or some such as you will
notice that above a certain size, big transports have always mounted their
engines under the wings. Also the new prototype HondaJet (6-8 seat bizjet)
does something novel and mounts the engines on pylons *above* the wings.
This provides ground clearance but also allows them to get more usable cabin
space.


Just a nit, but above-wing mounting is not really novel. Check out

http://www.airliners.net/search/phot...nct_entry=true

for example. There were also a number of early aircraft that used
above-wing mounting, particularly in seaplanes.

- Rich