For 25¢ a gallon the U.S. oil industry can now produce quantities of aviation gasoline so powerful that present airplane engines in production cannot make full use of it. Fuel technology has outstripped mechanical progress, inverting the aviation picture of 16 years ago.
In those days engine designers were frustrated for want of high-test gasoline. Mail planes roared along on 60 octane pap. As late as 1929 designers and flyers never dreamed of using 100 octane gasoline, the presumably unattainable "perfect" fuel.
Not until 1931 was the first 100 octane gasoline madeand...
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