It is unnecessary to enlarge on the importance of the fuels used in aviation in a paper before this Society. Not only is fuel quality the most important individual factor to be considered in the economics of civil aviation, but engine development, aircraft design and performance depend upon it.

An apology is offered, in view of the title of the paper, that as it is barely possible in the confines of a single paper to deal adequately with the volatile fuels (known as petrols and gasolines) used in the normal carburettor or homogeneous charge engines, other types of fuels have necessarily been omitted.