Originally Posted by
cwatters
Since nobody has answered.. A bit of googling produced the following figures for fuel consumption and typical cruise speeds. Some sites gave very different figures for same aircraft so might be errors....
Rotary:
206B Jetranger - 30 gph, 110kts
R44 - 15 gph, 115kts
Fixed Wing:
C172 - 10 gph, 110kts,
Piper Seneca - 22 gph, 175kts
So looks like the C172 is probably the lowest.
PS: I estimate the lorry burns 7 gph and cruises at 48kts but obviously that's carrying 38 tons where as the above err don't.
the 172 is of course the lowest, and the slowest. plus you need transport to and from the airport, whereas the R44 is point to point.
and the 172 might only be 2250lbs mauw, but i'd like to see the comparison on a 1 hour flight into europe, versus how long the truck would take to get to the same location, added with eurotunnel/ferry/road damage/tyre useage etc. a friend of mine drives a 500hp truck, when climbing a hill at 20mph it is at 2mpg, it's highway cruise at 55mph fuel burn is 5mpg.