It seems that when traveling in on land, a car may get decent mpg but has a small tank of gas. This is opposed to a bus, which would get poor mpg, but has a large tank of gas.
My question is, does the same thing apply to airplanes? Could a small personal jet fly as far as a massive Boeing, because despite the Boeing holding far more fuel, the smaller jet gets better mpg?
And if it is true that the Boeing has a bigger tank, and the small jet gets better mpg, which one would travel further? (My guess is the Boeing, since it’s used for intercontinental flights, but if anyone has statistics for how far each can travel on a full tank it would be appreciated.)
A large transport category aircraft has a much greater range than a corporate-sized jet. I’m only guessing, but I think corporate jets have a range of 2,000 - 3,000 miles. Large transport aircraft have ranges of something like 8,000 miles.
But it’s not the “mileage” that matters. It’s the cost per seat mile. The Boeing’s big Rolls Royce turbines burn a lot more than, say, a Garrett on a corporate jet. But it carries many times the number of people.
Johnny L.A.'s guess is pretty close. A Cessna Citation CJ2, according to this chart only has a range of about 1,500 miles, depending on the loading.
Also, practically speaking, aircraft performance is not measured in miles per gallon like cars, but in pounds or gallons per hour. For example, a typical single-engine piston burns 6-7 gallons per hour. I don’t have the statistics handy, but a large transport jet’s fuel consumption can be hundreds or thousands of GPH.
Based on the related page from the site av8rmike mentions–http://cj2.cessna.com/specifications.chtml:
The Cessna Citation CJ2 can fly between about 100MPH (stall speed) and 470MPH (maximum). Its range is 1,944 miles with a 45 minute reserve and can hold 3,932 lbs of fuel which weighs 6.7 lbs per gallon. Presumably this means that a full load of fuel can get you 1,944 miles + 350 miles reserve (at top speed–unlikely but it’ll do for shirt-sleeve calculations) for a total of about 2,300 miles.
Thus, 2,300 miles on 587 gallons is 3.9 miles per gallon. I imagine you can run the engine a bit more efficiently and get better mileage, but I may be wrong. Interestingly, this is right about the same as a city bus (which I’ve seen cited at 3.55 MPG for a “high efficiency” bus.)
Of course, wind is also pretty important.