[daepp]

There is a plane that flies over my city with an engine in the front and in the rear that I've recently learned is a Cessna Skymaster. The non-pilot that told me what it was indicated that it was a very safe design in that the two engines were in-line.

I know that a more conventional, side-by-side twin engine plane can be trouble if an engine quits during take off. In fact, the owner of our local airport dies when he lost one engine. So my question is, why hasn't this design become the dominant one?