eltonioni wrote:It makes you hanker for the days of regulators when (for example) airliners needed at least three engines to cross the Atlantic, not just a type certification.
Dick Taylor, then Boeing's director of engineering approached FAA director J. Lynn Helms in 1980 about the possibility of an exemption, whose response was "It'll be a cold day in hell before I let twins fly long haul, overwater routes." [3][4] The Boeing 767-200ER entered service in 1984.
Although in this case there seems not to have been any engine problem. They pushed the aircraft very reliably earthward ..
In 1988 (I think) I flew the Atlantic on 2 engines for the first time. It was on the inaugural Wardair Gatwick-Ottawa Airbus service, replacing DC10s. It was literally the airframe's second flight after its empty delivery flight from Toulouse.
In Ottawa I knew the RAF Air Attache at the High Commission, a Navigator, quite well. To return to UK he always flew down to Washington to catch the weekly RAF VC10 to Brize, although Wardair direct would not only have been more convenient but possibly not much more expensive after the flight to National, taxis, and a hotel night in Washington. When I asked why, he said that it was because it had 4 engines, 'and unfortunately they do not make them with 6'.
[my first transatlantic was in a BOAC Stratocruiser ..]
(mere guide at) Jet Age Museum, Gloucestershire Airport
http://www.jetagemuseum.org/TripAdvisor Excellence Award 2015
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction ... gland.html