USA variants and their engine performance

Machinery of War Discussion Helicopter
1

I couldn’t see this mentioned everywhere, since everyone is complaining about hellfire performance 1st, but it seems to me that the AH64 line are underperforming in engine performance. At a minimum they seems to be greatly underpowered compared to pretty much every other helicopter in the game (as a subjective observation)

note: this is not in depth, just wikipedia. but just a start to notice something seems off.
wikipedia:
AH1Z - General Electric T700-GE-401C 1,800 shp (1,300 kW)
AH-64A - General Electric T700-701 1,696 shp (1,265 kW)
AH-64D - General Electric T700-701C 1,890 shp (1,410 kW)

in game:
AH1Z - General Electric T700-GE-401C - 250 KGF takeoff thrust
AH-64A - General Electric T700-701 - 140 KGF takeoff thrust
AH-64D - General Electric T700-701C - 150 KGF takeoff thrust

[AH1Z wikipedia] (Bell AH-1Z Viper - Wikipedia)
[AH64 wikipedia] (Boeing AH-64 Apache - Wikipedia)

i am not sure how they are modeled, but it seems like the difference between engine power on the AH1Z and AH64’s should be closer?

2

Those helicopters use turboshaft engines, which are designed to turn a shaft rather than produce thrust (the thrust is essentially a byproduct).

Just because a turboshaft engine produces more shaft output power does not necessarily mean it produces more thrust. In fact you generally want a turboshaft engine to produce as little thrust as possible. If you want the engine to turn a shaft then anything going out the back as thrust is essentially wasted energy.

3

@Flame2512 , i dont disagree. the numbers may not be

i dont really care about the numbers. The real key here is that subjectively, the AH64 line feel sluggish and heavy. and that conceptually makes little sense.