Fuel Consumption of U.S. Military Cargo Aircraft

Recently, I was fortunate enough to receive a tour of Travis Air Force Base. I was in awe of the number of huge aircraft parked on the tarmac. The hardware in just a small section of the base would rival that of an entire third world country's air force.

According to NPR, the U.S. armed forces burn up 340,000 barrels of oil a day. That's about as much as the Philippines-- the country.

Travis Air Force Base has about 26 C-5 Galaxies, 27 KC-10 Extenders, and 13 C-17 Globemaster IIIs. I saw a couple of these beasts take off and wondered: What kind of mileage do they get?

Lockheed C-5 Galaxy. Its cargo hold is 121 feet long, one foot longer than the length of the Wright brothers' first flight. 18.6 GALLONS per mile.

MD KC-10 Extender. This refueling plane can hold 356,000 (!) pounds of jet fuel to refuel other planes. That's the equivalent of over 69 Bentley Eights. It gets a miserly 5 gallons per mile. If it used up the 356,000 gallons meant for other planes, it could travel another 71,200 miles, or about 1/3 of the way to the moon.

The Boeing C-17 Globemaster III gets 12.8 gallons per mile. And I thought Humvees got bad mileage.

CKY