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Aviation glossary

Specific fuel consumption

Also: SFC, TSFC, thrust-specific fuel consumption

Engines

Amount of fuel an engine burns for each unit of thrust or power it produces over a given time; the standard measure of engine efficiency.

What it is

For jet engines it is expressed as thrust-specific fuel consumption (TSFC): grams of fuel per second per kilonewton of thrust, or pounds per hour per pound of thrust. For propeller engines it is quoted per unit of power. The lower the figure, the more efficient the engine.

It varies with altitude, speed and power setting, so figures can only be compared under the same conditions, usually in cruise. It has fallen sharply with each engine generation thanks to hotter, more efficient cores and higher bypass ratios: manufacturers credit engines such as the LEAP and the PW1000G with an improvement of around 15 per cent over their predecessors.

For an airline, engine efficiency translates directly into cost per seat, range and emissions, since every kilogram of jet fuel burnt produces about 3.16 kilograms of carbon dioxide.

Related terms

ThrustForce produced by an engine as it accelerates air or exhaust gas rearwards, pushing the aircraft forward in reaction. Bypass ratioRatio between the mass of air that flows around a turbofan's core through the outer duct and the mass that passes through the core to be burnt. Engine coreCentral part of a turbofan, essentially the high-pressure compressor, combustor and high-pressure turbine, through which the air that is burnt passes. RangeMaximum distance an aircraft can fly without refuelling with a given load, while keeping the fuel reserves required by regulations. Jet fuelPetroleum-based fuel used by the turbine engines of civil aircraft; the most common grades are Jet A-1 and, in the United States, Jet A.
Whole glossary

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This page was last updated on October 9, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). Specific fuel consumption. Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/specific-fuel-consumption

MLA

“Specific fuel consumption.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/specific-fuel-consumption. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Vuelopedia. “Specific fuel consumption.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 9, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/specific-fuel-consumption.

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) Specific fuel consumption. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/specific-fuel-consumption (Accessed: 16 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_specific_fuel_consumption,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{Specific fuel consumption}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-10-09},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/specific-fuel-consumption},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/specific-fuel-consumption}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-16},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-16}
}

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/specific-fuel-consumption |title=Specific fuel consumption |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-09 |access-date=2026-10-16 |language=en}}

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