[jacquesm]

I didn't have airplane engines in mind when I wrote that (tanks = vehicles) but given the thread context and your airplanes reference I see how that could happen, same thing with 'block heaters' elsewhere in the thread, I take it that is in the context of other vehicles (heavy equipment, tractor-trailers, buses and so on).

And yes, some airplane engines use gas but the majority of them runs something that in constituency is closer to regular diesel than to gas.

Kersone is #1 diesel!

AV gas is another matter entirely but I'm not aware of any jet that would use it, though that might be a fun thing, and given that turbines can run on almost anything combustible it will probably work to some extent but I don't think it will be a happy ending unless the engine is really designed for it.

Btw, this is an interesting start-up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESdHyNtHpqs not cold weather but I'd hate to fly that in any conditions.

[WalterBright]

Being WW2, these were piston engines running avgas.

[ethbro]

I guess the sole redeeming thermodynamic property of the operation would be that most seals would expand as they heated?

Still, I imagine that was a "light fire, move away" procedure!

[jacquesm]

The bigger reason is to make the oil fluid again!