If you look at statistics, twin engine a/c are inhenrently more dangerous than singles. Main reason is the complexity of an engine failure... especially in light twins. A loss of one engine, in a light twin, while only 50% of the power, can be as much as 80% of the performance. There is a level of knowledge that had to be THOROUGHLY understood aerodynamically to safely recover a twin from an engine out situation, most critically at take off. The biggest thing are two speeds call blue line and red line. Blue line is your single engine best rate of climb speed. If you loose an engine, this is the speed you're flying... and there's a chance it may not be enough to keep you airbone. This is also assuming you're cleaned up, secured the prop, and are flying with zero sideslip to minimize aerodynamic drag. There's more to it than that, but thats the jist. Red line is you're single engine min control speed, or Vmc. There's no life below this speed. Single engine, if you get below Vmc there is not enough rudder/aileron to over come the yaw from the assymetric thrust, and you WILL lose control of the a/c. Basically as you approach redline, with full rudder and aileron in, the nose will just keep pulling, then most a/c will snap roll over, and you depart. The only way to recover is close the throttle, get the nose down, get above blue line, and recover. If you don't have a lot of altitude, you won't.
All this said, there are a lot more factors that go into it, under standing critical engine, what makes up a critical engine, 4 factors that effect Vmc... suffice to say I had students that, while they could fly single engine, they couldn't explain it, and I would never put them up for a check ride. My MEI check ride... the oral exam was about 4 hours, the flight only a .9 because the examiner wanted to know that I knew exactly what I was teaching.
So why is the hornet c/l thrust restricted? (as well as aircraft like the Cessna 337)... because the thrust from both engines is pretty much along centerline of the a/c. A loss of an engine, while producing a little yaw, it's not much. I don't think you can Vmc roll a Hornet... a Tomcat could and would.
Ok, so there's my dusting off of some really old Multi-Engine instructor knowledge... everyone clear?
