This weighs ~400,000 lbs; nearly as much as the empty plane itself.
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With today's fuel prices, it costs about $450,000 to fill up a Boeing 747, depending on your market. By contrast, the Gulfstream G280, a popular business aviation aircraft, costs around $8,000 to fill.
US Carriers Jet Fuel Cost and Consumption - March 2022US carriers reported an average fuel cost of $3.04 per gallon during March 2022. Spot prices have continued to increase, reaching $5.07 on April 28, 2022 and averaged $3.91 for the month of April.
As a rule of thumb for the Boeing 747, pilots either quote dump rates ranging within 1–2 tons per minute or reference a thumb formula of dump time = (dump weight / 2) + 5 in minutes.
A plane like a Boeing 747 uses approximately 1 gallon (about 4 liters) of fuel every second. Over the course of a 10-hour flight, it might burn 36,000 gallons (150,000 liters). The 747 burns approximately 5 gallons of fuel per mile (12 liters of fuel per kilometer).
The four engines of the Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet burn approximately 10 to 11 tonnes of fuel an hour when in the cruise. This equates to roughly 1 gallon (approximately 4 litres) of fuel every second. It can carry a maximum of 238,604 liters of fuel and it has a range of about 7,790 nautical miles.
Jet Fuel Cost by Aircraft Cabin SizeFor example, on May 11, 2022, the IATA per gallon price was $4.82 in North America, $4.01 in Europe, and $3.55 in Asia. At Boston's Hanscomb Field Jet A was selling between $9.79 and $13.38 per gallon.
A typical Boeing 747-400 passenger jet burns between 5,633 and 5,772 pounds of jet fuel on takeoff. For Boeing 747-400 freighters, the amount increases to between 6,389 and 6,589 pounds.
How far can a Boeing 747 fly without refueling? A: This depends on the size of the plane, its efficiency, and how fast it's flying. A modern Boeing 747 can fly about 15,000 km (9,500 miles) when it's flying at 900 kmh (550 mph).
It would seem strange that pilots would purposefully dump fuel from their aircraft at a time when fuel prices have skyrocketed. What's more bizarre is that they do it in the air while flying. Tossing fuel into the air is a safe procedure for a good reason. Additionally, it is not as wasteful as it seems.
The reason to dump fuel is simple: to drop weight. Any given aircraft has a Maximum Landing Weight (MLW) at which it can land, and in most cases that weight is lower than its Maximum Takeoff Weight (MTOW).