CoolP, once again you have hit the nail on the head!

Forget the engine failure as the reason for the abort. Lets say we are going down the runway at near MTOW and as we near V1 we hear a bang and feel a slight yaw. What do YOU do? What happened? Was it a compressor stall? Was it a bird strike? Or maybe was it a blown tire?

Think about it for a few seconds.....

In real life you don't have a few seconds, do you?

Lets say the rear outboard tire on the left truck just blew. You are 20 knots below V1 but building speed fast. Now it's just about V1 - do you continue or abort? What happened? Can you continue? Should you try to stop? There is no Monday morning here my friends. The Oh SH%T period is very short indeed.

Ok, you elect to continue the takeoff. The tire failed at about 20 knots below V1, but it took you a few seconds to make a choice. During that time the mate on the other side of the axle which had to take the load also gave up the ghost. [ This is what they sometimes do! ] Now the left truck has lost both tires on the aft section and the other tires are working very hard to take the load. The drag is increased since the two dead tires are not working. BOOM, the front outboard tire fails and the plane begins to yaw. You are just about at V1 when the last tire on the left truck goes bang and leaves the wheel flying out toward the front. The tire carcass is ingested into the left engine causing catastrophic failure of the left engine. Humm, now what do you do? Will the plane continue to gain speed toward VR? Did the loss of the truck cause so much drag as to cause the plane to leave the runway? Are all the hydraulics still intact? Will she fly?

How about if you elected to abort at the first bang? With the above conditions, will you have the ability to stop?

Food for thought....  :-/

CoolP, you are right, the two engine plane may well do better than its multi-engined brother. As you can see, there is always something else to think about.

Flying is hours and hours of sheer boredom... punctuated by moments of stark terror!

That's why pilots get the big bucks!  ;D

Lou