As lift is also proportional to density, area and square of velocity, that whole term cancels out from the equation of fuel usage per distance, basically only L

As lift is also proportional to density, area and square of velocity, that whole term cancels out from the equation of fuel usage per distance, basically only L/D or cL/cD matters. In practice it might be a bit more complicated. EDIT: indeed here we can see that Concorde had lift to drag ratio of only 7.5 at Mach 2, while Boeing 747 has 17.7 at Mach 0.9 or so. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lift-to-drag_ratio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lift-to-drag_ratio