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Fuel is rated according to its level of octane. High amounts of octane allow a powerful piston engine to burn its fuel efficiently, a quality called "anti-knock" because the engine does not misfire, or "knock." At that time, high-octane aviation gas was only a small percentage of the overall petroleum refined in the United States. Most gas had no more than an 87 octane rating. Doolittle pushed hard for the development of 100-octane fuel (commonly called Aviation Gasoline or AvGas) and convinced Shell to begin manufacturing it, to stockpile the chemicals necessary to make more, and to modify its refineries to make mass production of high-octane fuel possible. As a result, when the United States entered the war in late 1941, it had plenty of high-quality fuel for its engines, and its aircraft engines performed better than similarly sized engines in the German Luftwaffe's airplanes. Engine designers were also encouraged by the existence of high-performance fuels to develop even higher-performance engines for aircraft.
But a running engines at top speed crashing into a building, might, just might, catch fire.........and spreading that fuel through out the square footage, including the hole created, and gravity itself.................... 
Go outside an ignite a some gas.............feel the heat from the fireball............and imagine this contained, with other flammable items...........This isn't rocket science, just jet fuel, plus ignition.
[Edited on 5/6/2007 5:07 AM]
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