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Cheers, that’s actually better than I assumed it would be. Rich uncle has a plane but likes to think of himself as very eco-aware etc. His car is obviously a Tesla, so he presumably feels one balances out the other 🤷♂️
AlexD-
actually better than I assumed it would be
There's a lot of potential for it to be better yet. Most very small light aircraft suffer from engines whose basic design dates back to the 1930s, and they weren't even cutting edge then. Specific fuel consumption suffers from large parasitic losses and poor thermodynamic performance as you would expect from two-valve air cooled petrol engines with no exhaust energy recovery. Modern automotive turbo diesels of comparable power use about a third less fuel. Also, many of the aerodynamic and structural designs are quite primitive, resulting in high drag and high mass. Applying the full suite of modern technology (refined aero, lightweight composite structure, turbo-diesel power) would easily yield 60mpg for a two seat aircraft.
gbj_tester
The archetypal 2-seater would be the Cessna 150, which will apparently go 480 statute miles on the usable 18.7 imperial gallon fuel capacity. That's 25mpg, which is poor for a person who's trying to be green but better than a lot of sociopaths will be achieving in their completely unnecessary 300HP+ SUVs