I like the idea of added depth. I like Cannon's idea of subtracting fuel in jumps.
What I dislike is the idea to leave people hanging there forever. So to circumvent it somewhat make all NPCs carry it?
Or some sort of long automatic replenishment of the fuel? I know this would lead to a lot of things to be into account, like stopping overflow or fuel farming and selling.
Fun idea, but probably tough to implement. I just rp it. Maybe you could jettison fuel every now and then and blow it up to simulate the burn. I dump cargo for rp all the time. =) heck, exploded myself that one time by dumping ss torps and dropping a cluster of mines on my own head.
as i said its a realistic system and we use it on earth a lot already. one unit of hfuel would last years in game. if you had been playing freelancer since the begining you would be on your 2nd or 3rd unit right now.