Hit the ground running

[snopes]

Comment: We heard that the expression "hit the ground running" came about
because castor oil was used as plane fuel or a fuel additive in WWI, and
after breathing the fumes for a while, the pilots would be in quite a
hurry to get to a toilet when they landed. Is that the origin of the
expression?

[Singing in the Drizzle]

Was there any airplanes during WWI that ran on diesel fuel. Because castor oil will work as diodiesel. It would not work as a replacement for gas in the engines. Though it could be mixed with gas to work in a 2 cycle engine.

The next question is how much smoke would one have to ingest to make have a strong need to find a toilet. After that, how quickly does it work, because when I had to take it before and x-ray, it took several hours. Though one must ask how much of that may have just been combat jitters.


Here is what The Phrase Finder has to say.

Origin

'Hit the ground running' didn't originate in WWII, as is often reported. The literal use of this phrase saw the light of day sometime toward the end of the 19th century in the USA. An early citation of it is found in a whimsical story which was syndicated in several newspapers, including The Evening News, 23rd April 1895, in a piece headed 'King Of All The Liars' (and should their readers have not got the picture from the text, they were kind enough to provide one):


"I turned to run and figured to a dot when he shot. As he cracked loose I jumped way up in the air and did a split, just like what these show gals does, only mine wasn't on the ground by six foot. The bullet went under me. I knew he had five more cartridges, so I hit the ground running and squatted low down when his gun barked a second time."

There are many references to the term in the early 20th century. These all use hit the ground running in its literal sense and relate to the various ways people might do this, for instance, hobos jumping from freight trains, troops being dropped by parachute etc. The first figurative use that I've found so far, i.e. a usage where no actual ground or running is involved, is from The Hayward Daily Review, October 1940:


"It sometimes seems to me that the young idea nowadays wants to hit the ground running and to tell the old editors how to run things."