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To: RichardEdward
I agree with the others, its not the best article, but I would like to expound on the explosive decompression myth, which IS a myth. Its a hollywood invented myth. Its cool to show people flying around airplanes when someone shoots a gun, or to watch an Alien get sucked out into space through a tiny hole. Explosive decompression would occur when a significant breach of the cabin. A single bullet hole wouldn't suffice. Lets say a bad bullet hole would be 1/2 inch in diameter. I contend that you could stop up that hole with nothing but your thumb!

Such a hole would have an area of about 0.2 square inches. Now assuming the WORST case, that the cabin pressure is 14.7 psi, and the external pressure is zero (which only occurs in space), then you would have a sucking force of about 3 friggin pounds.

Take some superglue, make a 1/2 inch circle on your thumb, then stick it to a 3 lb. weight, then lift. Killing you? No. A bit sore maybe. Its no big deal.

That scene in Alien Resurrection, while certainly cool looking, was a crock of huey.

13 posted on 10/15/2001 3:54:13 PM PDT by Paradox
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To: Paradox
Now assuming the WORST case, that the cabin pressure is 14.7 psi, and the external pressure is zero

The actual pressure differential is usually less than 8 psi.

The idea that a 9mm hole in the aircraft's fuselage would cause an explosive depressurization is purely a myth inspired by Hollywood. The pressure outflow duct which bleeds off air to maintain an even cabin pressure is many times larger than any bullet hole and there's at least one on every plane.

I read posts which use the Aloha Airlines 737 as an example of what would happen if a gun was fired in a plane at altitude. There is no comparison to that incident and a bullet hole. The Aloha 737 fuselage was cracked from too many thousands of TOAL cycles, and the cracks had allowed the salt air around the Hawaii area to corrode rivets. A huge section of the fuselage was blown off and even after that the plane not only survived, it landed safely with almost all the passengers intact. To compare losing a dozen or so square yards of fuselage with a few bullet holes is ludicrous.

37 posted on 10/15/2001 9:47:20 PM PDT by epow
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