Newsgroups: sci.military
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!cbnews!military
From: ron@hpfcso.fc.hp.com (Ron Miller)
Subject: Re: Re: SR-71 congealed oil
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 90 03:27:36 GMT
Approved: military@att.att.com
Message-ID: <1990Oct19.032736.13097@cbnews.att.com>
References: <1990Oct11.051057.29887@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military-request@att.att.com
Lines: 37



From: ron@hpfcso.fc.hp.com (Ron Miller)

Re; congealed oil
> 
> 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?
> Iskandar Taib                        | The only thing worse than Peach ala


I got a look at a NATOPS manual for a T-28 Trojan that my father was 
flying for proficiency hours while at a desk job in Washington. The 
airplane had an oil dilution system for cold starts of the monster
radial engine. Seemed kind of wierd, and was undoubtedly a little hard
on the equipment but apparently is a known solution to the problem.
I presume that the gasoline evaporates and leaves the oil back at
normal viscosity once the oil is up to temp. 

I also recall in Martin Caidin's book about the  Ju-52  trimotor German
airplane he owns that he talks about the equipment in the airplane that
was installed for operations in the Russian winter on the Eastern Front.

My opinion is that only a government funded military can afford the 
replacement and maintenance that comes with gasoline dilution.
The rest of us use electric or kerosene block heaters.
(I use an electric block heater on my jeep and I've used kerosene
 preheaters on light airplanes for starts at 0F.)

Ron Miller