How much fuel does an airplane use for a trip?

A Boeing 747 uses approximately one galloon of fuel per second -- over the course of a ten hour flight, it might burn 36,00 galloons of fuel. How does this compare to a car? Check out this HowStuffWorks podcast to learn more about airplane mileage.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works dot com
where smart Happens. Hi, I'm Marshall Brain with today's question,
how much fuel does an international airplane use for a trip?
A plane like a Boeing seven forty seven uses approximately

(00:23):
one gallon of fuel every second. Over the course of
a ten hour flight, it might burn thirty six thousand
gallons of fuel. That sounds like a lot. According to
Boeing's website, the seven forty seven burns approximately five gallons
of fuel per mile. This sounds like tremendously poor miles
per gallon, but consider that a seven forty seven can

(00:46):
carry as many as five hundred sixty eight people. Let's
call it five hundred people to use around number. A
seven forty seven is transporting five hundred people one mile
using five gallons of fuel. That means the plan it
is burning about point oh one gallons per person per mile.
In other words, the plane is getting a hundred miles

(01:07):
per gallon per person. The typical car gets about twenty
five miles per gallon, So the seven forty seven is
actually 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 seven forty seven
is flying at about five fifty miles per hour. Be

(01:29):
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