Oxygen on airplanes? How it works

Did you know most oxygen on airliners is in a solid form, not an air tank? #science #airplane #medicine

[padrex]

Additionally, only the pilot’s masks are pressurized (different and separate system) and the passengers are not. That’s because the pilots need to be able to bring the aircraft to a safe altitude.

[whatever]

I sorta knew the gist, but this is a nice explanation. And I have heard of "oxygen candles" that are used on submarines in an emergency. It seems paradoxical but it's the exact same thing as this. I'm amazed they get so hot! Sometimes people joke about putting your own mask on before helping others, but it's certain if you don't get your O2 mask on fast enough, the child sitting next to you can't help you out.

[guyunknown]

That’s cool I never would’ve thought about that but it does make since, they’re easier to replace and probably weigh way less and are safer overall because oxygen tanks can explode and pure oxygen when in a leak can explode or catch fire

[chaplainpaul]

We had something like this on us navy subs. This is legit chemistry.

[brucewayne-cave]

was always concerned about them telling us to yank on the tube 1st. Sounded like it could pull the tube off if things went bad. Thank you for filling in my decades long curiosity.

[danstrayer]

when the Jet Blue crash happened in the Everglades it was from unsecured O2 generators, as I recall

[Redbird]

They use something similar to make oxygen on a submarine like you said it’s essentially a giant candle made out of the same material and uses the same process they also use electrolysis

[octaviocampos]

Actually is not about safety of reliability. It has more to do with weight and simplicity. Usually those chemical oxygen generators last between 10 and 25 minutes. In case the airplane flies over mountainous terrains, where the aircraft can’t descend to a safe altitude for the passengers to be able to breathe without external oxygen for an extended period of time, a gaseous system is required(oxygen tanks). Those gaseous systems can last significantly longer than 25 minutes. Otherwise the aircraft has to fly a different route. Some models of aircraft can be equipped with either system.

[bentuttle]

Its also nice to not have dozens of oxygen bottles that would require periodic testing and occasionally complete removal from the plane for hydrostatic testing. Oxygen bottles have also occasionally turned into rockets that punch a nice big hole in the aircraft when they break (which has happened before, since all commercial aircraft that have passenger masks also have masks for the crew, which is run from a handful of oxygen bottles)

[JamesD]

These actually took down a plane once, they were expired and being transported on a passenger flight. They generate a lot of heat and when one went off it caused others to go off.

[pulsarpilot]

Thank you for explaining this. The look on a person's face when they hear there's no tank is like when they find out buttons at crosswalks don't do anything.

[festerbestertester]

It's been awhile since I've been in the business, but I believe the flight crew still gets there O2 from bottles.

[carloscarrillo]

That is true only in big comercial Airliners. Private jets have their own Oxygen supply for all occupants.

[cwbuilds]

Safer as long as theyre not burning down your cargo hold*

[harrychamberlain]

They're also used on nuclear submarines and they're called oxygen candles

[DrArkham.]

This is used in submarines too but a much bigger version.

[BernardBouchard-qqkq]

They fall but you must pull on them to activate.So if you need another you can use one that hasn't been pulled.

[orca]

How well does this work when decompression happened ?

[ElBantosClips]

Correct, apart from the 787 i believe. Pax use a bunch of o2 bottles which gives them a lot more time than o2 generators

[kevinpotts]

We had these on submarines and used them anytime our O² generation equipment was broken down. Except ours were industrial sized and if necessary we could survive off of them for months.