E-2 Hawkeye Facts! | T.R. Matson aka "Wombat" (New Full) 

Glad you enjoyed it

He obviously got to close to the radar while it was emitting

Glad you enjoyed it.

Keeping enough parts on the boat - if you’ve got to have L and R versions of everything engine-wise then you’ve doubled your parts inventory when space on the boat is very very limited.

Benefits to coaxial contra rotating propellers: 1) Greatly reduced net propeller torque per engine. Costs to achieve the single benefit? 1) Additional weight that must be paid by the design's useful load capacity and increased induced drag every moment the aircraft flies. 2) Additional length of the engine-transmission-propeller unit, which would result in increased difficulty in handling an aircraft that is already pushing hard against the allowable size limits for a carrier-based aircraft; i.e., the additional volume would make moving and stowing what is already a big aircraft more of a hassle every time it must be moved on the ship. 3) Accessing the propellers for inspections, firefighting and servicing would be more difficult. Again, more hassle for the operations crew. 4) In terms of initial development of the aircraft, contra rotating propellers and the additional components add significant development costs vs the base "one propeller per engine" design unless a mature, proven combination that was previously developed exists and is in current production. 5) More complex, moving parts means more wear, more opportunities for bad interactions (aka, trouble), more inspections, more maintenance, more troubleshooting and almost certainly lower dispatch and in-flight reliability. 6) Additional spare parts, each of which has a supply chain, are required on shore and on the ship, therefore more inventory to buy, transport and manage. Bottom line: Unnecessary weight and complexity are the enemy, especially in aircraft. The only time complexity is worth paying for is when it's necessary, for example to obtain capabilities that cannot otherwise be produced, such as is given by helicopters or Ospreys. Whenever I look at a Transformer, I see thousands of potential failure modes and servicing requirements. In the case of the C-2/E2, I'm fairly certain the Navy & Grumman decided the juice of coaxial contra rotating, or even opposite-rotating props wasn't worth the squeeze. The only reason Lockheed went to opposite-turning propellers for the P-38 is because flight testing proved it to be completely necessary.