Can a cessna skymaster 337 fly if one engine fails

Question

A cessna skymaster is a twin engine plane, with one in the front and one in the rear. If one of the engines fail will the aircraft be able to fly on the remaining engine?

Answer 1

I have an instructor who flew those and lost an engine at night.  Its still flew but didn't have enough power to climb.  He was only 100 feet agl because he was doing some mosquito spraying, so he dumped his load and still couldn't gain altitude.  Unfortunately the landing gear hydraulic system is ran by the one engine he lost, so he had to manually lower the gear with the hand pump while skimming over trees to the airfield.  He only got the nose gear down before he hit the runway and the plane was totaled.  He walked away though.  So yeah they'll fly, but you better have some good altitude or it will get hairy pretty quickly.

Answer 2

yes and it can make 42 ft forward for every 1 foot down if the pilot knows what she/he is doing and even that can be increased.

Answer 3

The Cessna 337 Skymaster / O-2  with it center line thrust was design to be able to fly on a single engine.  

BUT, it is not good at it and if you have a full load it will more than like sink slowly.  If your light - then you can fly, maintain and even climb (although very slowly) on a single engine.

The airplane had some wonderful characteristic and some terrible ones.  The landing gear system sucks and the Continetal IO-360 engines at 210 hp where a little weak.  If Cessna could have fixed these two issue I think you would have seen more of them built.

Answer 4

I seem to recall pilots flying the 0-2 Military version in Vietnam, regularly flying on one fan.

Answer 5

I had a running joke on the Cessna 337 "DeathMaster" that I had never seen one upright or not onfire...  

First, the airplane MUST be able to fly not only on one engine... but in difference to the other answers...  in order to be certificated Airworthy in the USA,  it must be able to climb atleast 50 FPM at Gross weight...so if the airplane wouldn't climb on one engine, it was because of something not being correct with the machine (and NO, I did not list all the conditions for the config of the a/c for that cert. climb)

I have already described it here in another answer.. but I saw with my own eyes.. a C-337 take off from LBB around  Fall 1979 and use 8,000 feet of runway... and when the tower asked him if he was OK... because of such a long takeoff roll... he replied.. "Yes.. I don't have a multi-engine rating.. so I am only using the front engine"  

So, it is possible to take off and climb out single engine in the thing. The tower notified the FAA and they were waiting for him in AMA when he landed.  True Story.

As JD mentioned,  the thing had gear problems ALL the time... I honestly can't remember seeing one that was worth a hoot... they were hangar queens, very high maintenance.. and you would have needed to pay me a LOT of money to fly in one. It didn't sell very well... and... if you got your ME in the silly thing, you were limited to centerline thrust.... otherwise known as USELESS.

Answer 6

The Skymaster is an airplane that is very different from other airplanes, and so it has had a lot of detractors over the years, and people have said bad things about it since before the prototype flew.  It is actually one of the best all-around airplanes ever produced by the US civil aircraft industry.

I have done lots of charter flying in 337s, and I think they are very safe, convenient, and imminently flyable.  A pilot's airplane.  They just get a lot of ridicule because they look strange.

In real life, the Skymaster climbs about 1200 feet per minute on both engines, and about 300 feet per minute on one.  That's an original, out-of-the-box machine.  There have been many add-ons and enhancements offered over the years, and there are few "stock" Skymasters left.

I love it for a charter airplane because the high-wing layout makes it easy to get into and out of for people with arthritis or other limiting infirmities.  Try carrying a 300-pound man in a wheelchair in a Piper Aztec.  Much easier in the Skymaster.

The landing gear mechanism takes some special treatment in the shop, but if properly maintained it works very well.  And it climbs just fine on one engine.  You'll find detractors for anything that's a little different.

Such is life.

Answer 7

Yes. No problem. Well; very few problems.