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From: geoffm@EBay.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: SR-71 congealed oil
Message-ID: <1990Oct16.010937.11224@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 16 Oct 90 01:09:37 GMT
References: <1990Oct8.220953.7541@cbnews.att.com> <1990Oct10.000645.444@cbnews.att.com> <1990Oct11.051057.29887@cbnews.att.com> <1990Oct15.034029.13416@cbnews.att.com>
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From: geoffm@EBay.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller)


In article <1990Oct15.034029.13416@cbnews.att.com> ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Nur Iskandar Taib) writes:

>In the book about german ace Erich Hartmann, a captured
>russian pilot showed the germans how to keep their air-
>planes startable in the frigid temperatures. The technique
>was to mix gasoline with the oil! Apparently, after the 
>engine warmed up sufficiently, the gasoline boiled off 
>or evaporated. Do they make multigrade oil for airplanes?
>Or can you use Mobil 1?


I don't know how common it is, but apparently there are built-in systems in 
some reciprocating-engined aircraft that inject avgas into the oil for that 
purpose.  I saw an old training film in the Coast Guard about preparing 
airplanes for cold-weather storage, and the P-2 in the film had this feature.  

As for Mobil 1, it's chemically identical to the synthetic oil that's used in 
U.S. military turboprop aircraft and helicopters, MIL-L-23699.  One of our
helicopters had a low-oil indication awhile back and made an emergency 
landing on a baseball diamond at a city park that happened to be next to a
Mobil station.  The crewman bought a couple of quarts, poured 'em in, and they
flew home.  (Nonetheless, since Mobil 1 isn't explicitly mentioned by name 
in the technical manuals as an approved alternate oil, the engine had to be
pulled and sent to overhaul.)


Geoff


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Geoff Miller                    + + + + + + + +        Sun Microsystems
geoffm@purplehaze.sun.com       + + + + + + + +       Milpitas, California
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