The secret fuel that made the Spitfire supreme

Royal Society of Chemistry ^ | 13 May 2009 | Brian Emsley

[neverdem]

Better living & surviving through chemistry!

[saganite]

Wow. Another piece of the puzzle of how the Brits won the battle of Britain (if it’s true).

[2banana]

100-octane fuel has never been a secret.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

It’s true. 100/130 octane aviation gasoline was one of the U.S. secret weapons that neither Germany nor Japan could produce on a mass basis.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Another little non-secret secret is that U.S. chemists from American oil companies analyzed the fuels captured from downed German Messerschmitts and Jap zeros, and provided that info to the Army Air Corps and U.S. Navy so that our pilots could have yet another small advantage over the enemy in combat.

[Secret Agent Man]

And if we would have given them our crap gas today with ethanol in it, they would have been sitting ducks and speaking German in no time flat.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Nowadays they’d be forced to use a 15 percent ethanol blend—to save the earth, of course.

[fini]

In 1987 had a 64 Lincoln Continental that required 99 octane. I could run it on 93 by retarding the timing, but it was a slug. A couple of times I was able to put aviation gas in it and it ran like a scalded monkey. Man that was fun. However, at 8 miles to the gallon, and the nearest airport 60 miles away, it was a pretty rare occurence.

[Mr. Jazzy]

The secret was ...

White Lightnin!!!’

[Clay Moore]

More octane, crank in a few more degrees of timing and make more power. Pretty basic racing info. The British must have just not had the technology to produce the fuel.

[DuncanWaring]

I ran across this story thirty years ago.

The secret to winning the Battle of Britain - tetraethyl lead.

[colorado tanker]

Sure the higher octane helped but the Spitfire was a flat better designed airplane and the Hurricane was rugged as hell.

[alarm rider]

I have had the opportunity to hear a Spit engine a couple of times.

Once heard, you never forget it. Beautiful aircraft.

[tanknetter]

100-octane fuel has never been a secret.

True. Jimmy Doolittle showed the advantages of it in the 1930s while working for Shell.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Toward the end of the war, the Germans actually used ethanol to fuel their fighters. Worked pretty well...but not well-enough.

[bill1952]

they would have been sitting ducks and speaking German in no time flat.

Actually, they would be dead.
Putting alcohol in aviation fuel = crash landing all of the time.

Its why we can’t use a Mogas cert anymore for our aircraft.

[mc5cents]

Well, that is all well and good, but what kind of ‘carbon footprint’ did those things leave? Hmmmm? No wonder we have had global warming ever since. :-))

[DakotaRed]

OH NO!!!! Demon petroleum helped save the free world?

What will the moonbat environmentalists think now?

Probably just ignore it.

[saganite]

I have read extensively on WWII, especially as regards the air war since I’m a pilot (Air Force) and I don’t recall ever seeing that fact. Just goes to show, you’re never too old to learn.

[Talisker]

It obviously helped. But the Germans were operating on constrained fuel (and thus reduced combat time) reserves anyway, because of having to cross the Channel, as well as being up against the determination of British, American and Polish pilots who knew they were the only thing standing between the Nazis and full invasion. You put anyone’s back to the wall - watch out.