Doolittle pushed the Army Air Force to adopt 100 octane fuel in the 30s. He also convinced the British to use it and the higher octane fuel was one of the contributing factors to the RAF's success against the Germans during the Battle of Britain.
In a flight from Tulsa to Atlanta, I sat next to a petroleum Engineer. We talked about petroleum the whole time and it was actually one of the most interesting subjects I ever recall.
He really knew his stuff too.