Peter Ogilvie wrote
>Don't know whether the military JP formula has more
>lubricating ability and is closer to #2 diesel or all
>the military diesels are set up to run on #1 style
>fuel. I do know the JP designation has changed since
>my days flying in the Navy. That is probably not
>surprizing with all the improvements in chemistry and
>fuel additive technology.
This got me thinking Peter. I used to know all this stuff by heart for the
flight tests and such just as you must have yet most of it escapes me
now. But I am pretty sure that when I was in the Canadian Air Force the
description of JP-4 that I was given was that it was just about all
kerosene with some gasoline like compounds thrown in. I watched it being
used on all the military jet a/c I trained on; C-114, T-33, CF-104. JP-4
was the military standard in North America for just about all turbine
engines. It may well still be, I don't know. I have seen vague
references to some sort of "universal" military fuel called JP-10??? This
is supposedly some magic fuel that can be used in all turbine engines
without exception.
JP-4 is pretty well the same as good old Fuel Oil #1 and anything designed
to run on JP-4 will run on clean fuel oil, which is no different from kerosene.
In the early seventies I spent a bit of time in the right seat of Twin
Otters operating in the high arctic. The Pratt and Whitney engines in the
Twin Otter are the fabled PT-6 with its "just about never fail"
record. That engine burns just about anything you want to put into it. We
would routinely call up the local home fuel oil heating contractor on
arrival at a place like Baker Lake or Resolute or wherever and fill up on
home heating fuel. Apart from some overhaul time issues with burning
different fuels, including gasoline, there was no problem.
JP-4 is a little more volatile than the present Jet-A/B fuels and over the
years there have been serious concerns about its safety in a crash, but as
far as I know it is still powering military turbines world wide.
Rick Grant
1959 SII 88"
VORIZO
Calgary Alberta
www.rickgrant.com
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