Originally posted by Bubbajj
Why doesn't cutting one engine help you turn faster? It seem that all the power on one side would sling it around like a tt-dancer on a pole. I've tried and it seems odd that nothing ridiculous happens. Was there any protocol for this in the actual P38 flight manuals? I've done the hammerhead thing and it works real nice. Why wouldn't it work in the horizontal plane? Is it because the engines are so close together? Would this work differently in a Mossie?
It has to do with what is the dominate force on your airframe at a given moment. If you are in controlled flight, lift is the dominate force. Single engine power will affect the intensity of the yaw and roll forces on your plane, but it won't give a pronounced effect while the lift force is acting on your mass.
Hence why it is so pronounced in a spin, or taxiing. The off center thrust becomes the domninate force. With a hammerhead, its the same thing. As you near and cross into stall conditions, the asemetric thrust becomes the dominate force.
In theory, yes making a left hand turn with your thrust line right of center would help you turn to the left better. But without full thrust from the other engine, you are losing out on the thrust to drag and power to weight ratio. At your max sustained turn rate, your thrust and drag are roughly equal. Lower your thrust, and you lower your sustained rate of turn. In short any possible benifit is negated by the effects of reduced thrust.
On the other hand, it is possible to do some neat things with it, but it usually involves having a stall condition somewhere on your foils, and it is usually a 1/2-2 second action, not sustained.