P-38 has two engines and they turn in opposite directions. B-17 has four engines and they all turn in the same direction. Is there any other plane , with more than one engine, that turn in opposite direction? Art
Aircraft builders in the past have tried to build planes with countrerotating props but it has never worked out very well. Howard Hughes was nearly killed testing his version of such a plane. I think very late Spitfires had countrerotating props but of course they only had one engine. Seafire Mark 46 and 47. Also tried in the past is two engines with one prop such as the He-177. After the war the Russian Tupolev Tu-20 had coutrarotating props with four engines of 12000hp power for each engine and a 7000 mile range. The British had the Fairey Gannet with two engines side by side and each engine driving one set of countrarotating props. I don't know what their service history was but it sounds like they were a maintance nightmare. Also early P-38's did not have engines and props that rotated in opposite directions and the torque problems killed alot of cadets.
The immediate post-war De Havilland Hornet definitely had 'handed' engines, ie they rotated toward each other. As this aircraft was fundamentally a single-seater derived from the Mosquito, the question is often asked whether later Mossies had the same feature ? It's generally agreed that they didn't, despite suffering throughout the war with a decided 'swing' to port which caused some lurid ( and occasionally fatal ) takeoff incidents, especially with heavily-loaded LNSF bombers.
