This post is thanks to “Untold War Archives.”  [Webmaster’s NOTE: This was NOT a “mechanic’s crazy” idea, but rather a young Pratt & Whitney Chemical Engineer’s scheme.]

During WWII, Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engineers developed a novel innovation designed to push fighter plane engines beyond their normal limits: injecting a water-alcohol mixture directly into Pratt & Whitney R-2800 radial engines to safely prevent catastrophic engine detonation or “knock” – and sure failure – at extreme power levels.

The initial theory was that this anti-detonation injection system would cool the combustion process just enough to allow pilots to safely crank up and boost their engine manifold pressure for short bursts, delivering critical extra horsepower when it mattered most.

However, the early combat flight trials over Europe were disastrous, actually destroying the massive radial P&W R-2800 engines.  The alcohol-water mixture initially used was Isopropyl alcohol.*

The Army Air Force’s top “experts” convened in an emergency session at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio to determine what action to take.  The group quickly decided that the entire concept had to be shelved, and the entire water-alcohol injection system needed to be immediately removed from all Army aircraft.

Among all the attending “experts” was a young junior P&W chemical engineer, Frank Walker.  Determined to solve this crisis, Walker immediately set to work and came up with a solution, he claimed, but incorporating the young, inexperienced engineer’s changes was considered foolish and quickly turned down.  But, acting clandestinely, against the ‘experts’ unified conclusion, his simple solution of changing the type of alcohol (From Isopropyl to Methanol) was taken to Europe – – – where it saved the day. 

The final result showed that the U.S. P-47 and P-51 fighters could suddenly climb faster and sprint harder in combat—seemingly defying what should have been physically possible for their engines.  The astounding success of Walker’s simple solution was actually attempted in Col. Gabreski’s P-47.

Walker’s unapproved initiative could have easily resulted in a court-martial for all of his fellow conspirators. 

Instead, this brash and literally insubordinate gamble made Walker a first-class hero, whose persistence against the overly conservative bureaucracy and its assemblage of top “experts” resulted in the entire reversal of the Air War over the continent, and the saving of untold thousands of American and Allied lives.

Disclaimer:

This video is a dramatized retelling of a true World War II event, created for educational reflection purposes. Elements of the narrative have been artistically interpreted, and creative tools, including AI, were used to enhance the storytelling experience. The video is 37 min 32 sec. in length.  Viewing it right here in your FASF website may eliminate some of the advertisements.  Use Full-Screen.

Frank Walker’s chemistry had created technological superiority that German manufacturing could not overcome.  Walker himself returned to the Pratt and Whitney Laboratory in Connecticut after the unproductive Wright AFB emergency meeting, where he continued developing combustion chemistry that would soon power the next generation of American aircraft. His wartime breakthrough became the foundation for turbine engine development, rocket propulsion research, and ultimately the chemical systems that would power spacecraft to the moon. His methanol-water injection that saved American fighters in 1944 evolved into the cryogenic fuel systems that defined the space age.

The final irony was discovered after the war’s end, in German technical documents that showed Luftwaffe engineers had understood the theoretical basis for alcohol injection years before the Americans’ implementation, but their own hyper-conservative approach differed little from that of the Wright-Patterson assembly, of top American “experts.” Consequently, the Nazis’ own Intransigence led to their failure to implement an engine feature that could really have changed the war’s outcome.

The laws of physics had not been defied. They had been revealed by a junior chemical engineer whose laboratory work transformed the fundamental equation of aerial warfare.

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The above CHART shows the 3 basic Types of Alcohol and their differences.