druppolo t1_ja7u7p9 wrote
Main factors:
1 Engine noise: you want the engines to be away from the people. Having them in the tail is a good solution.
2 Structural weight: above a certain size, you gain a lot by optimizing the aircraft structural load. Engines and fuel are heavy. Having fuel and engines strapped to the wings means they are directly supported in flight. On the contrary, if you put the engine in the tail, the wing has to support the fuselage that then supports the engine, which asks for more structure, so more weight.
Conclusion: as long as the plane is small enough, tail engines are more silent and not so heavy. On bigger planes wing engines allow for a lighter structure, and due to dimensions, noise-wise they are still far enough from people.
Perks: wing engine are closer to ground and this saves a lot of maintenance time, and increases maintenance quality (the more comfortable is the technician, the better he can check things)
-source: I’m an aircraft mechanic (but not the designer, so take this with a bit of salt, design is not my job, shouldn’t be my job, damn I hate when I have to decide where to put the engines myself, that’s a red flag for the company)
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