It's hinted at in the wiki article, but one of the advantages of this configuration is that it is supposed to be safer if one of the engine goes out during takeoff. Multi-engine planes tend to be less safe than single-engine planes (for general aviation) despite the redundancy of an extra engine because if an engine goes out during takeoff most pilots have a very hard time maintaining control of the aircraft.
Yep that's right. There are also planes like the Cessna Skymaster[0] that have two propellers in a push-pull configuration, where both propellers are in line with center of the fuselage.
