The use of 100 Octane Fuel in the RAF pt 2

[Vincenzo]

No problem, feel free to use this information and that goes for anyone. A number of people helped me with the first posting and its the least I can do.
I have tried to ensure that all the postings tie up and you will see that where it relates to to say item 9 of a summary of conclusions, then item 9 has been posted. I could see one line which I knew Kurfurst would almost certainly leap on and could have left it out, but that would have broken the train so I kept it in.

The item that I wasn't expacting was the production of 100 Octane in the UK . I only copied the one paper that is attached but what impressed me was that considering the average consumption of 100 Octane was 10,000 tons a month at the hight of the BOB this trial produced 33,000 tons in four months. The paper may be of interest as it gives some clues at to what was needed and other material required.
This trial was completed and as mentioned before the refinery switched back to normal production.

for true "will be about 33,000 tons" this a preventive report we don't know the actual production, almost not from this doc

[Vincenzo]

I read the docs in none it's write that 100 octane was in use in all the stations/squadrons (for hurri and spits), the docs clear that all spist and hurri can use the 100 octane fuel also with the engienes were not modified (but with no benefit). if i miss some show me.

Adler you write this
"But when people start insulting others because they don't agree with their research, that is bullshit! It ruins threads and will not be tolerated."
i want notes that kurfurst not insulted the glider research or person but him referee at a not gentle comment of lesofprimus
"And look who the fu*k is asking for the evidence now, the guy who couldnt prove his own allegations with evidence.... I love how uve twisted everything around Kurfurst to make everyone run for u, its hilarious...."

[fass]

If I may join the fray: I've picked up (most of) Glider's story quickly but this is evidently first-class historical research. Of course your location is advantageous, Glider!
However, I think it would be a good thing to keep emotions - and associated language - in check on a forum characterized by scholarship rather than acrimony.

Consider the following question:
Suppose 100 octane were exclusively distributed to certain stations, other stations being restricted to 87 octane. Normally, a squadron is stationed on a certain station (that's why it's "stationed"...) as its home base. But any senior commander will be aware that in wartime squadrons are rotated, can be suddenly posted to a different station and that aircraft unfortunately do not always land at their home base for a variety of reasons (battle damage or just getting lost...). So in no time you'd be having umpteen fighters with engines tuned for 100 octane being stranded on 87 octane stations, and vice versa. A logistics nightmare and one supposes the RAF might have thought of that?

[FLYBOYJ]

Consider the following question:
Suppose 100 octane were exclusively distributed to certain stations, other stations being restricted to 87 octane. Normally, a squadron is stationed on a certain station (that's why it's "stationed"...) as its home base. But any senior commander will be aware that in wartime squadrons are rotated, can be suddenly posted to a different station and that aircraft unfortunately do not always land at their home base for a variety of reasons (battle damage or just getting lost...). So in no time you'd be having umpteen fighters with engines tuned for 100 octane being stranded on 87 octane stations, and vice versa. A logistics nightmare and one supposes the RAF might have thought of that?

Speaking in general terms, the use of a lower octane fuel isn't necessarily going to ground an aircraft in an emergency situation and the same holds true for using a higher octane rated fuel on an aircraft fated for the lower fuel if it’s just a matter of re-positioning aircraft. One would have to be careful with CHT temps, mixtures and detonation.

[Glider]

for true "will be about 33,000 tons" this a preventive report we don't know the actual production, almost not from this doc

You are correct when you say this is a preparitory document. There were other papers that covered the end of the production and the switch back to normal production.

It was an experiment and as such it worked but wasn't repeated as it wasn't needed. Shoud I go back to the National Archives I am more than happy to look into this in more detail.

[Glider]

If I may join the fray: I've picked up (most of) Glider's story quickly but this is evidently first-class historical research. Of course your location is advantageous, Glider!
However, I think it would be a good thing to keep emotions - and associated language - in check on a forum characterized by scholarship rather than acrimony.

Consider the following question:
Suppose 100 octane were exclusively distributed to certain stations, other stations being restricted to 87 octane. Normally, a squadron is stationed on a certain station (that's why it's "stationed"...) as its home base. But any senior commander will be aware that in wartime squadrons are rotated, can be suddenly posted to a different station and that aircraft unfortunately do not always land at their home base for a variety of reasons (battle damage or just getting lost...). So in no time you'd be having umpteen fighters with engines tuned for 100 octane being stranded on 87 octane stations, and vice versa. A logistics nightmare and one supposes the RAF might have thought of that?

Fass
Thanks for the comment and I agree about the words used.
Looking at the scenario outlined you are correct but the problems of having mixed fuel on different squadrons in wartime are numerous.

1. Squadrons are based at stations in peacetime but no in war. In the BOB squadrons were rotated between no 11 Group and No 13 Group for time to recover and retrain. So you would have to take the fuel with you. The option of leaving the aircraft behind doesn't really work as they need to have work done on them. You don't want a fleet of worn out aircraft in the front line.
The logistics of moving the fuel around would be huge

2. Squadrons are merged for instance into the big wings. One of the problems of the big wing was that they merged types such as Hurricanes and Spitfires which made them difficult to handle as they had a different performance. Throw different fuel into the mix and you have four differing performances, Hurricanes with and without 100 Octane plus Spitfires with and without 100 Octane

3. What are new aircraft built to, with or without the 100 Octane

There are other problems but with all the many of hundreds of books about the BOB you would think that something would have been mentioned if these problems existed.

[Milosh]

Maybe I missed it Glider but do you have a list of the order in which the stations received the 100 fuel? I would imagine it would start with the stations in south-east England (11 Group) and gradually radiate out to stations in northern Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

fass, you wouldn't have aircraft stranded at bases for they could be fueled with whatever fuel was available to get them back to their home base. The 100 fuel was because the Merlin got an increase in allowable boost pressure. The Merlin would run on the lower grade of fuel just fine as long as the boost was kept below the boost pressure of the lower rated engine.

[Glider]

Maybe I missed it Glider but do you have a list of the order in which the stations received the 100 fuel? I would imagine it would start with the stations in south-east England (11 Group) and gradually radiate out to stations in northern Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

I am afraid that I don't have a full list as to which field was issued with the fuel at what date. We do have a list of the first 21 stations that were to be issued with the fuel. These were

ACKLINGTON 13 Group
BIGGIN HILL 11 Group
CATTERICK 13 Group
DEBDEN 11 Group
DIGBY 12 Group
DREM 13 Group
DUXFORD 12 Group
HORNCHURCH 11 Group
LECONFIELD 12 Group
MANSTON 11 Group
MARTLESHAM HEATH 11 Group
NORTHHOLT 11 Group
NORTH WEALD 11 Group
TANGMERE 11 Group
TURNHOUSE 13 Group
CROYDON 11 Group
ST. ATHAN
WITTERING 12 Group
CHRUCH FENTON 12 Group
GRANGEMOUTH 13 Group
FILTON 10 Group

These are of course stations not squadrons. All these would have had more than one squadron and you can imagine the confusion if one squadron on a station was supposed to have a different fuel from a different squadron.

[Shortround6]

As I understand it the modifications to enable an aircraft to use 100 octane fuel was a simple recalibration or ajustment of the boost limit device and the addition of a control device in the cockpit to over ride the normal limit and allow the extra boost.

take standard engine made to run on 87 octane fuel at 6lb of boost. The supercharger will supply this amount of boost all the way to 16,250ft. Engines were first reset to allow 9lbs of boost which the supercharger would NOT supply all the way up to 16,250ft but only to a lower altitude. Engines were later reset/manufactured to allow 12lb of boost but again the supercharger could only supply this bost to a still power altitude above which the performance dropped back to the lower settings. above 16,250-17,000ft there was no difference in performance between an engine running on 87 octane and one running on 100 octane.

If plane was forced to land at a field that had no 100 octane fuel the answer was simple, put in enough 87 octane to get back to the home feild and fly normally, just don't hit the boost over ride button on the way home.

100 octane might cause lead fouling of the spark plugs in certain types of engines which is why all engines types that might use it had to be tested first before operational permission could be granted.

[Njaco]

Glider, do you have a time frame for those first 21 stations?

[Glider]

Glider, do you have a time frame for those first 21 stations?

I am afraid that I don't. We do know the following
1) that the transfer was being planned as early as the 7th December 1939 when the letter was written by FC admin to HQ.
2) That the issue of the fuel to the squadrons should be made as soon as the depots for the stations had been filled with the 100 Octane Fuel
3) Some squadrons started using the Fuel pretty quickly
North Weald started using it on the 16th February 1940 as mentioned in 151 squadron Opps ready book. Hurricane Squadrons in France were also using the fuel in May, No 1 Sqd starting on the 18th May at Berry-Au-Bac.
Digby Squadrons started operating with the fuel on 21st March
Hornchurch on 16th March
Drem on 16th February

Clearly this was a fluid situation as the French Stations didn't show on the initial list of stations to be so equipped. I wish that I did have this information but do not.

Hope this helps

[bigZ]

In "I kept no diary" by Air Commodore F.R Banks. He mentions that he gave a paper in Jan of 37 in which he pleaded for the development of British military enginess to take 100 octane fuel. Which despite citical opinion from oil company representaives the Director of Technical Development of the British Air Ministry agrred with his paper.

"So by 1940 the Merlin's power was increased by this fuel from a combat rating of 1,000(plus) bhp to over 1,300 bhp, and 100 octane became available to Fighter Command ready for the BOB..."

"In June 1930, only 3 months before the start of WWII, a company tanker, the Beaconhill, set sail across the Alantic for the UK. with a full cargo of 100 octane fuel. We began stockpiling the this fuel though the decision to use 100 octane for Fighter Command was not made until March 1940 and that for its use by Bomber Command came in 1941."

The author also suggests for more detailed information:-

Milestones in Aviation Fuels by W.G.Dukek, D.P Winans and A.R.Ogston. Paper given at A.I.A.A. Designers and Operators meeting, July 1969, Los Angeles.

Sorry I couldn't scan the extract as I am still unpacking after my relocation to NZ.

[Mike Williams]

Below please find documentation related to 100 octane use by the RAF leading up to and during the Battle of Britain:



Emergency +12 lbs./sq. in. Boost Operation: Pilot's Notes, Merlin II, III and IV, 4th Edition, April 1940, page 6.


Handling of Merlin in Hurricane, Spitfire and Defiant Aircraft, H.C.T. Dowding, C-in-C Fighter Command, 1 August 1940:


611 Squadron Operations Record Book


74 Squadron Operations Record Book


602 Squadron Operations Record Book


151 Squadron Operations Record Book


David Ross, The Greatest Squadron of Them All, The Definitive History of 603 Squadron, RAauxAF, (Grub Street, London, 2003), p. 125.


Alec Harvey-Bailey, The Merlin in Perspective, (Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust, Derby, 1983), p. 85.


Alfred Price, The Spitfire Story, (Arms and Armour Press Ltd., London, 1986), p. 74.


Flight, No. 1631 Vol. XXXVII, The Outlook, March 28, 1940.


Flight, January 6th 1944, p. 22.


W.G. Dudek and D. R. Winans, excerpt from AIAA Paper No. 69-779, Milestones in Aviation Fuels, (Esso Research and Engineering Company, New York 1969.) p. 319.



A. R. Ogston, excerpt from History of Aircraft Lubricants (Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc. Warrendale, PA USA), p. 12.


V. A. Kalichevsky, The Amazing Petroleum Industry, (Rheinhold Publishing Corporation, New York, 1943), p. 7.


RAF Website
The Royal Air Force - History Section

“All benefited from the replacement of 87 octane petrol with 100 octane, which allowed the engines to run at higher boost, and increased the Spitfire's speed by 25 mph (40 km/h) at sea level and by 34 mph (55 km/h) at 10,000 feet.”

Al Deere, Combat Report - 26 May 1940 , 54 Squadron


F/Lt Brian Lane, Combat Report - 26 May 1940, 19 Squadron


P/O John Bushell. Combat Report, 18 May 1940, 151 Squadron


F/LT. John Webster, Combat Report - 28 July 1940, 41 Squadron


F/Lt George Gribble, Combat Report - 15 August 1940, 54 Squadron


P/O R.D. Elliott, Combat Report - 9 September 1940, 72 Squadron


56 Squadron Combat Report, 9 May 1940


F/Lt I. R. Gleed, 87 Squadron, 18 May 1940


602 Squadron Spitfire I in pre Battle of Britain camoflage and marked for 100 octane fuel


609 Squadron Spitfire I in pre Battle of Britain camoflage and marked for 100 octane fuel


610 Squadron Spitfire Mk I at Hawkinge in early July 1940. Note the petrol bowser marked for 100 octane fuel.


Spitfire Mk II P7420 with 19 Squadron, September 1940, Note the petrol bowser marked for 100 octane fuel.



For further reading and additional documentation please see:
Hurricane Mk I Performance
Spitfire I vrs Me 109

[FLYBOYJ]

Great post Mike, thanks!!!!!!!

[parsifal]

To me thats a slam dunk. FC was using 100 Octane for the entir4e command during the course of the battle. Great post.