I was walking down the street after work last night...

Some years ago I was driving from San Diego to Phoenix and was about El Centro when up ahead I noticed a bunch of cars that had pulled over to the shoulder of the highway. I slowed down thinking it was an accident but then I saw it was people watching the Blue Angels practising. I was driving a hire car, Pontiac Sunbird, top down, so I took advantage of the fact I could look right up in the air at them. My (then) wife's screaming told me I should pull over so I did and joined everyone else watching them. An absolutely magical moment for this down under tourist, one of those special moments that can't be planned. We watched them for about 15 minutes before they finished. That is a lovely memory. Thanks for bringing it back for me.

Amazing - but actually quite scary when they were so often doing very hairy things right over you.

A plane like a Boeing 747 uses approximately 1 gallon of fuel (about 4 liters) every second. Over the course of a 10-hour flight, it might burn 36,000 gallons (150,000 liters). According to Boeing's Web site, the 747 burns approximately 5 gallons of fuel per mile (12 liters per kilometer).

This sounds like a tremendously poor miles-per-gallon rating! But consider that a 747 can carry as many as 568 people. Let's call it 500 people to take into account the fact that not all seats on most flights are occupied. A 747 is transporting 500 people 1 mile using 5 gallons of fuel. That means the plane is burning 0.01 gallons per person per mile. In other words, the plane is getting 100 miles per gallon per person! The typical car gets about 25 miles per gallon, so the 747 is much better than a car carrying one person, and compares favorably even if there are four people in the car. Not bad when you consider that the 747 is flying at 550 miles per hour (900 km/h)!