In the sixteen years since it was manufactured, my truck has travelled some 190000 miles. Supposing an average fuel economy of 14 miles per gallon, the truck has burned about 13571 gallons of fuel. That’s a lot.
A Boeing 777-200, smallest of the 777s, has a maximum fuel capacity of 31000 gallons. That’s more than twice as much as a lot. The 777-200’s maximum range is listed as 5235 nautical miles, or some 6024 miles. Disregarding other factors, and the possible irrelevance of such limits to typical operation, these maximums suggest a fuel economy between 0.19 and 0.2 miles per gallon.
These calculations are contrived, but it should be clear that a transcontinental flight consumes more than peanuts.
Nevertheless, this comparison should not be construed as an indictment of air travel. There are millions of trucks like mine but only a handful of airliners. Furthermore, airplanes carry many passengers, and cars do not. Last but not least, cars cannot fly. Flight is intrinsically cool.
So, I leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out how many people a 777-200 would have to carry from NY to LA to use less fuel than those people would use if they each drove a truck like mine the same distance.
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 at 7:20 PM
1 Comment
Posted by
on 3/6/08 11:42 AM:
Will use your calculations to try and compute an estimated fuel cost for each passenger butt plus 3 pieces of luggage assuming an average weight of 185 lbs/person luggage lg bag 70 lbs; 2nd bag 66lbs; 3 bag 42 lbs. AA is planning to fly from Chicago to Moscow which is approximately 13hrs 20mins. I believe they will fly this route using a 777-300. Anyway, guess I have nothing more pressing, ha!