What was the fuel consumption of major aircraft of the Second World War?

Question

in litres or gallons

Answer 1

You can lean a Mustang out to about 65 ghp.  But that's pretty good, except for the radials -- the R2800 cruised at about 120 gph.

Answer 2

There is a pretty good rule of thumb for figuring fuel flow in airplanes. You take the horse power, divide it by two. then move the decimal to the left.  So If you have a 160 hp engine you divide 160 by 2, giving you 80. move the decimal, 8.0 which is gallons per hour.  That works just about every time for aircraft engines.

There have been some major advances in engine technoliogy, but generally speaking, aircraft engines haven't changed much, and that rule of thumb holds true. I wouldn't plan a flight based on that, but to give you a rough idea, its pretty good.

So a P-51 makes 1,700 hp. half of that is 850. move the decimal and you have 85 gallons per hour.

Answer 3

I don't have an exact number but its probably in between 10 to 12 miles per gallon because of the large engines that bombers and fighters were fitted with