Why is aircraft fuel measured in kilograms rather than in litres?
There is a factor contributing to this logic:
the varying density of the fuel over temperature swings. As the plane, and the
fuel, may leave the airport at 40°C, and then climb to high altitude where the
temperature is -40°C, the volume of that fuel measured in liters will shrink by
almost 8%[1], while the mass does not change, and neither does the
stoichiometry of the combustion reaction in the engine. If they filled up the
tanks to a certain volume in liters on a hot day, without accounting for the actual
mass or density, the flight could run out of fuel!
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