Jets are easier to maintain (fewer moving parts = fewer chances for breakdown), but the materials & skills needed to make them are really expensive and hard to come by, and the fuel is more expensive to refine, AFAIK.
The question, IMO, is how to find and make a high-energy fuel to run those aircraft, prop or jet. You could probably run a blimp or dirigible off ethanol, but not a fixed- or rotary-wing craft.
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My Twilight claim to fame: I ran "Allegheny Uprising" at Allegheny College, spring of 1988.
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