Everything You wanted to know (or ask) about 44-1 (super high octane) aviation fuel

[Conslaw]

The subject of 44-1 aviation fuel has come up in several forums lately, so I wanted to see if there would be interest in a thread specifically about 44-1 fuel.

I have some questions to start:

Did the US Navy use 44-1 or other 100/150 aviation fuel? It doesn't seem that they were running their engines above 65 inches of mercury.

Was 100/150 the standard even after the end of World War II? Was it the standard during the Korean conflict in 1950?

What was the performance difference of the P-51D and the P-51H when they were both running the same octane and the same manifold pressure?

 

[Shortround6]

Post war the US came up with 115/145 fuel for both military and civilian use and while they might be the same they did not have to be, there were some minor differences in the specifications. There was also a civilian 108/135 and both military and civilian 100/130 fuel. One difference is that Military 100/130 could have up to 4.6ml of lead per US gallon while the commercial fuel could have a max of 3.0ml per US gallon.

100/150 may never have been a standard US fuel. I may be corrected on that but I believe it was a British fuel made available to some US aircraft based in the UK.

 

[Neil Stirling]

100/150 Grade Fuel:

150 Grade Fuel

RAF and USAAF only.

115/145. Small batch produced for testing during 1945 and used in some Pacific based Mustangs.

Background to 115/145 Grade.

http://www.afhra.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-090601-038.pdf

Neil.