Aviation Turbine Fuel Properties and Their Trends

This paper is an examination of published Jet A inspection data covering selected property distributions, averages, and trends for the period from 1969 to 1979. Yearly median values of aromatics, mercaptan sulfur content, 10-percent distillation temperature, smoke point, and freezing point are changing with time, approaching their specification limit values, particularly in the last three years. A near-specification property is defined as one within a stated tolerance band around the specification limit. On this basis, most fuel samples have one to three near-specification properties, the most common being aromatics, smoke point, and freezing point.