Average Starting Salaries. According to salary surveys conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), mechanical engineering graduates with a master's degree earned an average starting salary of $66,158 in 2009 and $69,954 in 2010. This average starting salary rose to $74,300 in 2011.
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.
Top-fuelers burn a mixture that's 90 percent nitromethane and 10 percent alcohol. Interestingly, a gallon of nitromethane, which costs $58, has less energy content than gasoline (14 kilowatt-hours versus 34). But nitro is an oxygen-rich compound that requires less air to burn, so the engine can consume more of it, thereby producing greater power. The 58 nozzles in the intake tract are always open, dumping about 5 gallons of fuel in a 4-second run. That kind of flow requires a firehose-like fuel line.