Re: Explosive decompression - how fast?

> "Brian Davis" <brdavis@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
>
news:c9e65a5b-4d8d-4131-8683-b2de6f67f2bb@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On Apr 28, 10:46 am, Michael Ash <m...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
....
> > My understanding is that pure oxygen at a reasonable
> > breathable pressure is essentially the same fire hazard
> > as the standard atmosphere.
>
> It's not. Not even close. the fact that 80% of the gas running through
> a flame does nothing more than warm up (does not contribute energy to
> the process) keeps a flame in a "normal" atmosphere significantly
> cooler. If all you have is low-pressure pure O2 for an atmosphere,
> there's nothing to dilute that heat flux. Among other problems. Not
> the least of which is potential O2 toxicity (better watch that
> breathing gas mix on the way down *very* closely). You've just turned
> the "cheap" plane into a cheap plane with a very sophisticated gas-
> handling system. Not easy, safe, or cheap.

Also, there are those tanks of pure oxygen (presumably liquid oxygen?)
that 
at the very least are undesired deadweight that existing aircraft don't 
need. The safety implications of the liquid (or else high pressure) pure 
oxygen part of the system, before it is injected into the cabin is
probably 
non-trivial.