Question on fuel consumption

"Shemp McGurk" wrote in message
m...
[...]
And from the example you give above, it's about what I thought it
would be: a 747 with, say, 300 passengers is consuming 6 gallons per
mile and a Gulfstream with, say, 10 passengers is consuming 1 gallon
per mile, the per-passenger miles-per-gallon is WAY higher with the
private jet than with the commercial jet.

You have that backwards (maybe because the mileages were stated reverse from
what we're used to in the US).

300 passengers in an airplane that's getting 1/6th of a mile per gallon
winds up being 50 passenger-miles per gallon, while 10 passengers in an
airplane that's getting 1 mile per gallon winds up being 10 passenger-miles
per gallon. The 747 has better mileage by a factor of 5.

That's assuming the figures are actually correct, of course. I can't speak
on whether they are or not.

Pete