AERO ENGINE FUELS.
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HERE IS one consideration that may make the . motor proprietor inclined to hope for slow development commercial aeronautics. This is the fuel question.
Undoubtedly, there are now signs of Great Britain becoming less dependent on imported fuels than has been the case in the past. We produce quite a decent amount of benzole and it looks as if we may presently produce substantial quantities of petrol. '31.oreover, we can, if we like, enlarge our home supplies by the distillation of alcohol at the sacrifice of only a trifling percentage in the efficiency of coal gas. If, however, after we have made every effort, we are to find that the demand—owing to the institution of aerial services—has grown vastly more rapidly than the supply, out last state will be no better than the first.
In our opinion, the fuel question is one which should not be considered in a detached manner by the road motor and by the aerial motor interests separately. It is essentially a case for collaboration. We can only gauge the future position at all if the big users and prospective users of fuel by air and by land pool their
figures so that we can get some idea of -the probable demand. Also, we want to question one another from the point of view of the quality of fuel required. Up to the present, the aero engine has been given of the hest, while the road engine has had to put up with what.was left There is not as yet much information as to the behaviour of inferior grades of fuel under flying conditions:" whilst we. still await the advent of carburetterswhich will permit the more general employment of low-grade fuels. There does not appear to beany reason why, an alcohol-ether mixture should not do very well in an aero engine. It is certainly .volatile enough, but one would imagine that it would never be found wanting by being possessed with too much volatility, such as might make itself evident on the ground in hot climates. If we are to scheme out the best possible allocation of our fuel, we cannot do it by one section of fuel users acting independently of another section. If we all get together then, by a process of give and take; we could probably arrive at conclusions reasonably satisfactory to all and, from those conclusions, develop something in the nature of standard fuels for aerial and for road motor purposes.