History of 100 Octane and IFR instruments?

[Ibra]

I was reading the history of Avgas 100 Octane (UL thread is somehow depressing to read), it's interesting that Spitefire engine could even run on 87 Octane? they were later switched to run on 100 Octane, this increased speed by 30mph and gave an edge versus ME109 ! 

https://www.warbirdforum.com/octane.htm

A nice history find is that the man who made 100 Octane at Shell in 1930's was the same guy who made flight instruments for flying without visibility in 1930's, he was also a famous racer.

Doolittle set the world's high-speed record for land planes in 1932 using Shell avgas

https://www.shell.com/business-customers/aviation/100years/more-uptime/high-octane.html

https://irontontribune.com/2021/01/16/jimmy-doolittle-pilot-racer-and-inventor-of-100-octane-gasoline/

A bit later, he was more famous with "Toolittle Raid".

Edited September 2 by Ibra

[IvanP]

Thanks for sharing. Did not know that Jimmy invented 100LL. One learns every day.

[kortopates]

Doolittle didn’t actually invent it but motivated Shell to produce it.
Many people were responsible for its formulation but a few things, especially TEL made it possible.
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[0TreeLemur]

The credit for introducing tetraethyl lead (TEL) to gasoline as an octane booster belongs to Thomas Midgley Jr.—an American mechanical and chemical engineer working under Charles Kettering at General Motors in the early 1920s.  BTW he also invented Freon.  Better living through chemistry!

[Ibra]

1 hour ago, 0TreeLemur said:

BTW he also invented Freon.  Better living through chemistry

Yes Feron/CFC is another ground breaking invention, which was also phased out after 50 years.

Yes Doolittle was more the "project manager" of 100LL rather than the scientist of TEL chemistry or 100 octane "inventor", he was also the "main user" when it comes to his racing career !

The history of economics is also interesting 100 MON octane was made using various compounds and refinery techniques before 1930, however, it was a lab item for scientists or luxury fuel for racing pilots not a consumer product, it was sold for 25$/USG (about 500$/USG today), the price went down as low as 0.2$/USG (about 4$/USG today) after Doolittle leadership in Shell Aviation and increase of volumes to support US war efforts in 1940, it was also the period of the lowest spread between the prices (and volumes) of Avgas vs Mogas fuels, 0.2$/USG vs 0.16$/USG !

 

 

Edited September 3 by Ibra

[N201MKTurbo]

https://www.cfrengines.com/history
 

I read an old book once about the early history of the Cooperative Fuel Research Committee. It was fascinating. Wish I could find a copy. I think it was called “Motor Fuels” it was written in the late 1930, I think.