PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Efficient altitude, reciprocating engines?
Old 12th January 2009 | 11:53
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IO540
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From: EuroGA.org
I have been looking into this and I don't think there is a clear cut answer - because engine efficiency is not constant over power, and neither is prop efficiency so even if you had a constant power you would not have a constant thrust.

If the thrust was truly constant, the answer would probably be that the MPG (or range if you like) is independent of altitude - so long as the flight is done at Vbg at all times.
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