Any Areoplane Techys here to answer this please?

[Guest lazyphil]

How many gallons of fuel does a Boeing 747/400 use in a journey, lets say from London to Bangkok? Thanks!

[think_too_mut]

>How many gallons of fuel does a Boeing 747/400 use in a journey, lets say from London to Bangkok? Thanks!

 

From HowStuffWorks:

 

A plane like a Boeing 747 uses approximately 1 gallon of fuel (about 4 liters) every second. Over the course of a 10-hour flight, it might burn 36,000 gallons (150,000 liters). According to Boeing's Web site, the 747 burns approximately 5 gallons of fuel per mile (12 liters per kilometer).

 

Edit: there is more, I found it interesting:

 

This sounds like a tremendously poor miles-per-gallon rating! But consider that a 747 can carry as many as 568 people. Let's call it 500 people to take into account the fact that not all seats on most flights are occupied. A 747 is transporting 500 people 1 mile using 5 gallons of fuel. That means the plane is burning 0.01 gallons per person per mile. In other words, the plane is getting 100 miles per gallon per person!

 

The typical car gets about 25 miles per gallon, so the 747 is much better than a car carrying one person, and compares favorably even if there are four people in the car. Not bad when you consider that the 747 is flying at 550 miles per hour (900 km/h)!

 

 

[stars99hk]

Don't know in in gallons but a 747-400 carries about 140 tons of fuel and on a trip from say LAX to HKG 14 or so hours against head wind would arrive in HKG with about 2 tons left. 747-400 carries a little more fuel than older verisons coz it has a tail tank.

That from an employee of Cathay Pacific engineering/planning.

[Guest lazyphil]

Thanks for this fellas. Thats a lot of fuel for sure. Now, I wonder how many 747/400's and other Boeing Areoplanes are in the sky at any given moment--frightning amounts of fuel being burnt

[stars99hk]

Also a regular configuration on a Cathay 747 first/biz/economy only has 387 seats. I think the only ones that ever had 500 seat are the JAL domestic flights with economy seating only.

[think_too_mut]

>Now, I wonder how many 747/400's and other Boeing Areoplanes are in the sky at any given moment--frightning amounts of fuel being burnt

 

I read somewhere that 800 B-737s are in the sky at any given moment.

 

Following that analogy, probably 500 B747s.

[shygye]

Probably less petrol than what all the cars on the M5 burn.

[Guest lazyphil]

You could be right--anyone care to do the sum, my calculator is buggered

[SoiledCowboy]

Are those new Airbus A380's flying routes yet? What a magnificant aircraft that dwarfs the 747 and can carry at least a genuine 500 passengers in spacious configuration - had a look on the Airbus website recently and it is one heck of an aircraft, something about, was it, 20% less fuel consumption than a 747-400 despite it's much higher load capacities?

[think_too_mut]

>Are those new Airbus A380's flying routes yet?

 

I think in 2006. Qantas will be the launching airline. Not flying yet.