"Blair Maynard" wrote in message

My question is why not configure the rear engines as pusher engines?

Did the German Arrow aircraft not show that this was an effective
combination?

The total number of "pusher" designs that went past the drawing board can be
counted on about one hand. The FACT that nobody ever produced them in
numbers during the Golden Age of Prop Aircraft (a/k/a WWII) should tell us a
lot about their feasibility.

IIRC, pushers seem more efficient but may not be. A prop in front of the
aircraft operates in "still" air; in a pusher config. it operates in the
"disturbed" air that lies aft of the the wing and fuselage. This
significantly compromises propeller efficiency. A second reason was that
props push air over control surfaces, particularly at takeoff power, making
them more effective at lower speeds (and reducing takeoff run distances).
This effect was also significant in landing configuation, IIRC. From Aero
in Pensacola so long ago I seem to remember that thses were at least some of
the reasons that they were not used

A couple of successful designs from the civilian world were the Republic
Seabee and Trecker Gull. Both were amphibians. I have a dim recollection
that the pusher configuration improved water performance, but I can't quite
remember.

Oh, and I guess I shouldn't forget the Wright Flyer!g

Wouldn't that somewhat alleviate the need to offset the engines/props?
It would certainly space the props further apart.

I dunno. Maybe.

Disadvantages:

I would guess the main obstacle would be the ground configuration of
the aircraft. Since the rear props would be pushers, they would have
to be pointing down for VTOL. How would the landing gear be
positioned so that the A/C would be balanced properly yet not
interfere with the rear props spinning rather close to the ground? I
can't answer this question off hand, but suspect there might be a
solution.

Another disadvantage would be the rear pusher engines could not tilt
much while on the ground. Since the rear props would be dangerously
close to the ground, tilting them a few degrees would put the front
blade tips very close to the surface. So the rear engines could not
help much in a STO. An STL (I don't know if the current tiltrotor the
V-22 Osprey even does this) would be impossible as the bouncing around
and any yaw or roll caused by any variation in ground surface would be
very dangerous with the rear props so close to the surface.

The aircraft would have to be longer than a quad-forward-facing
tiltrotor. Since there is more distance between the front and rear
props, the tail would have to be set further back to keep it out of
the way of the props.

Yes there are lots of practical disadvantages, no doubt many I haven't
listed. But I bet a quad pusher puller tiltrotor would cook in
airplane mode

It would be interesting to see the effects of transitioning from
airplane to vertiplane mode. I wonder if all four engines could
transition at the same time or whether it would be better to rotate
the front two by themselves before starting the rear to rotate. I
would guess all four engines would have to rotate at the same time as
otherwise there would be an imbalance of the vertical lift.

Sounds to me like a pretty complicated system. Complexity is spelled
m-o-n-e-y. Costs more to build. Costs more to maintain. Lots more to go
wrong (and give the Safety Officer even more gray hairs).

Personally, I would go with a tri-motor configuration, using three Pegasus
engines (two pod mounted on the wings a la the A3/B66 and one in the
fuselage). The cost savings in gear boxes and engineering and maintenance
would probably more than offset the higher initial cost of the the engines
with their higher fuel consumption.

Bill Kambic

If, by any act, error, or omission, I have, intentionally or
unintentionally, displayed any breedist, disciplinist, sexist, racist,
culturalist, nationalist, regionalist, localist, ageist, lookist, ableist,
sizeist, speciesist, intellectualist, socioeconomicist, ethnocentrist,
phallocentrist, heteropatriarchalist, or other violation of the rules of
political correctness, known or unknown, I am not sorry and I encourage you
to get over it.