Fuel for the Supersonic Transport

The importance of fuel costs provide a strong incentive to operate the SST on existing jet fuels. Potential fuel system problems peculiar to the supersonic transport such as fuel boiling, spontaneous ignition, deposit formation, lubricity, and combustion characteristics are reviewed. The significance of these problems is established. Their severity depends on the particular environment provided by the designer. The difficulties of defining fuel properties to eliminate these problems are covered. The paper shows that major steps have been taken to operate the SST on current quality jet fuels but all necessary fuel quality control tests are not yet available.