In article 4jBvd.568589$D%.328171@attbi_s51,
Jay Honeck wrote:

True. As Bill put it, JP-12 was the "worst diesel fuel around" -- it just
wouldn't burn.

This turned out to be a good thing on many occasions.

The exploding fuel mentioned up thread might be the TEB (Triethylborane).

From an old Mary Shafer post (http://yarchive.net/air/sr71.html):

MS TEB is the "igniter" for JP-7. You can't get JP-7 to burn without it
MS in the SR-71, as the ignition of JP-7 takes a higher temperature than
MS is conveniently produced otherwise. You drop in a shot of TEB, which
MS bursts into very hot flames the minute it has any oxygen, and this
MS ignites the JP-7. Once ignited, the JP-7 keeps burning. The plane
MS has twelve shots of TEB (either total or per engine, I forget), using
MS one shot for each engine start and one for each burner light.

There are lots more interesting details about TEB at the url above.

John
--
John Clear - http://www.panix.com/~jac