After listening to NPR on the C-130 Hercules fuel economy @ 3 gallons to the mile, I find that hard to believe. Can this be confirmed? I had no success with my internet research on this subject.
Originally posted 2008-12-22 21:43:45.
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Bottom line is that those figures are close for reasonable loads, a bit worse with full load and a lot better when you fly empty and slow.
Maximum useable fuel on a C-130 is around 60,000 pounds, fuel density for Jet-A or JP8 is around 6.74 lb/gallon and that gives us around 8900 gallons. The total fuel load it 45000 internal and 18700 external, so that’s 63700 and would give us a total of 9450 gallons (rather than the useable limit).
Let’s be kind and work with the useable fuel load and leave the other two tons alone.
With full load the range is around 2400 miles, 2500 with 25000 pounds and around 5200 empty.
3.7 gallons/mile at full load
3.6 gallons/mile with 25,000 pounds
1.7 gallons/mile with no load