Fuel consumption unit

[CONF iture]

What unit is commonly used to compare an airplane fuel consumption versus a car ?
And talking about car, many countries use Liter/100km as unit for fuel consumption, but it still seems very common to use as well mile/gallon.
For that matter:
What kind of mile is used ?
What kind of gallon is used ?
Is it different for example in UK, AUS, CAN, US ... ?
Thanks

[Rainboe]

Really, with 46 posts, think about this- look at the title of the forum!

[Gertrude the Wombat]

Fuel consumption should be measured in SWG.

This is obvious if you think about it - the dimensions of SWG are 1/area, which is the same as length/volume, ie how far do you go for a given amount of fuel, good so far ...

... but what makes it even more obvious is to think of the vehicle proceeding along a wire made out of fuel and consuming it as it goes.

[SWG: Standard Wire Gauge, for anyone who didn't build their own electronics in the days before this metric stuff came in.]

[eyeinthesky]

Light Aircraft: Gallons (usually US Gallons) per hour

Medium Aircraft: Lbs/Kgs per hour

Heavy Aircraft: Tonnes per hour!

Note that these are all time-based. Miles (nautical usually) are of little use as you will cover more of them for each unit of time with the wind behind you than you will with the wind against you, but the engine(s) use the same amount per unit of time regardless.