Hi Crumpp, Just want to check on two of your reasonings.
It's possible I've totally misread you here.
You ask (rhetorically) in the answer to your first question that data on 87 fuel was being produced "all of the way through" the BoB; and that, if 100 was the "standard" fuel in use, why would they continue to test 87… (I take your implication to be that 87 must have been in substantial operational use, given the apparent use in testing at that time) However, in your last question you ask “why is the RAF testing 100 fuel if it is the standard fuel” in use. This appears to suggest that testing of a fuel once it is in use is redundant to a degree, and therefore the fact that it is being tested indicates it must NOT be standard.
Does your answer to question 1, not also apply to the last? You indicate that your believe (correct me if I am wrong) that 87 was continually tested while it was the “standard” fuel in use, then you seem to have trouble understanding why the RAF would test a fuel when it is standard. Are we, in all cases, talking about primarily testing THE FUEL, or are we talking about testing the AIRCRAFT (or engine) WITH the fuel. I think here is a distinction between these two types of inquiry that will help us understand what isgoing on.
I suspect the issue here is also about engines and airframes. Not only are the RAF testing FUELs, they are testing the performance of new engines and propeller systems. So it is no wonder that we have 100 and 87 data throughout the period, because we also have different airframe types coming along. As an aside, If we want to rely heavily on “volume of testing carried out with fuel type” as some proxy for proportions of operational use, what we really need to do, is systemically record the dates of each of the actual tests and the fuels being used, in addition to any other variables being studies in the tests (i.e. engine, airframe etc). I thuinki, only then could we get a more reliable feel for the proportion of fuel type being tested, and perhaps (only paerhaps) make some assumptions about operational use on that basis. I don’t think we are at that level of information yet.
|