Jet fuels and a jet fuel surrogate have been thermally stressed to simulate the time/temperature history of aircraft fuel handling systems. Surrogate fuels were used to develop quantitative measurement techniques to assess fuel stability in static tests and compare the results with flowing tests. A variety of experimental techniques including Fourier transform infrared (IR), gas chromatography with atom-sensitive atomic-emission detection and high-pressure liquid chromatography have been used to study stressed and unstressed fuels. Quantitative and qualitative measurements of the deposits and the fuels are presented. In general, the static tests described here indicate that there is good agreement between static and flowing tests concerning the quality of a fuel. However, to adequately assess fuel stability, the availability of oxygen must be limited. Arbitrarily increasing the oxygen availability is likely to yield results which are not applicable to oxygen-starved stressing processes. Furthermore, contrary to expectations, the rate at which a fuel oxidizes is shown to be inversely related to the rate of formation of insoluble products.