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Helicopter Engine is Greedy on Fuel


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I was playing around in my career game with helicopter builds for the first time.

Whilst I was finally getting a craft to not crash 1 second after take-off, both engines cut out and I crashed in a firey wreck.

One fuel tank survived and was completely empty. It was the larger fuel only tanks which has 400 fuel.

So I check the fuel usage rates of the engines (R7000) and it uses 1.6 per second. So I compare that to the Wheesley which is on 0.23. What the hell?

I check the R121 Turboshaft and it's 0.4?

Why are the propeller and rotary wing engines so fuel hungry?

They are all gas turbines. I'd argue the Wheesley is more powerful than either of these engines. 

It means that I need a large tank for each R7000 for every 5mins (roughly) of flying. The Wheesley is what 6 or 7x more efficient? That makes no sense at all. The Wheesley states it has 10x the air intake of the R7000 which suggests it's fuel burn should be much higher.

The R7000 certainly isn't overly powerful as I need to run 2 of them at full power and speed to have any chance of getting my basic craft off the ground without counter rotating, which is nothing more than the 2 engines, the 2 fuel tanks, a seat, and some girders connecting it all.

Just for context I used to be an Avionics Technician working on Gas Turbine Rotary Wing Aircraft. So I have experience and knowledge in the real world on this topic.

What gives here? Is it just bad balancing? Or am I missing something?

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