Vital Synthetic Fuel Work Done at Robins

, ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE: The use of synthetic fuel is vital if the Air Force is to have the means of operating without the vulnerability of reliance on foreign oil supplies. The Sept. 19 flight by a B-52H Stratofortress at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., demonstrated the feasibility of using synthetic fuel in combat aircraft, and work on synthetic fuel done here at Robins centers on synthetic fuel for ground support vehicles. 
 
The quest for alternative fuel is not new. Over the decades, many nations which have an uncertain petroleum supply line have sought to make themselves less vulnerable to losing their supplies. The Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthetic fuel process is named for two German scientists, Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch, who invented the system prior to World War Two. Germany long recognized its vulnerability to a cutoff of petroleum supplies, and used the FT system extensively during the war. It is the very same FT system which the Air Force uses in its current effort.