David @mleku - 5mo
alumina - and a similar chemical phosphorus, are both surfactants in some of their compounds with especially hydroden and oxygen... phosphorus is relatively low temperature combustible but aluminium needs - not sure exactly, somewhere around 1000-1200'C i think, which is around the temperatures you get in a highly pressurised combustion like in a jet engine (which at high altitude is much cooler and slower because of the low oxygen levels)
also, just to point out, high altitude aircraft are becoming a less and less important part of air power anyway, drones now are more effective, cheaper, and can fly under radar, and there is even fully autonomous drones that don't phone home so they are hard to trace back even after being shot down
anti-corrosive agents generally function by preferentially soaking up the oxygen radicals so yeah, it would work that way too, it is more reactive than iron, the main vulnerable metal in a jet turbine
because the only way that could be practically done would take a LOTTTA tungsten and probably rhodium or something to not wear out and be extremely expensive to maintain the reaction is going on in gas phase also, the advantage of the dissolved alumina is it is dispersed enough in the gas phase to actually catch those oxidising radicals
