A fuel consumption question

[engguy]

Any airline sorts here that would know the actual fuel consumptions of some of the jet airliners?
And approximate fuel jettison occurances. Like how often is it done?

[b29flteng]

I spent 13 years flying C-130s and the fuel used was about 4,500 lbs. (6.8 lbs. per gallon) per hour, cruise power, at about 23,000 feet. the higher you flew the lower the fuel consumption. Thats why the jets like to fly as high as possible. Your true airspeed also increases with altitude. On long range flights you have to do a step climb to altitude as you burn off fuel. When heavy we would start at maybe 18,000 ft. and by the end of the flight we would be able to climb to 25,000 or so (ATC didn't want us any higher as would be too slow for the jets up there). We had to dump fuel once as we lost an engine right after a heavyweight take-off (I was a passenger).