No, the planes do not have tanks and tanks full of the stuff.
The way the air masks work is not from a pressurized oxygen system, which is a hazard aboard an aircraft.
Tucked up there above your seat where the masks are is a unit that looks like this:
That cylinder is not pressurized oxygen. It is a chemical oxygen generator which, when activated, uses a chemical reaction to release oxygen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_oxygen_generator
A chemical oxygen generator is a device releasing oxygen created by a chemical reaction. The oxygen source is usually an inorganic superoxide, chlorate, or perchlorate. A promising group of oxygen sources are ozonides. The generators are usually ignited mechanically, by a firing pin, and the chemical reaction is usually exothermic, making the generator a potential fire hazard. Potassium superoxide was used as an oxygen source on early manned missions of the Soviet space program, for firefighters, and for mine rescue.
You can't use them for supplying oxygen for a long period of time.
The only point of those units is to provide oxygen to the passengers in the event of depressurization, for as long as it takes the aircraft to get down to a reasonable altitude at which people can breathe, from a cruising altitude above 20K feet.
It's a couple of minutes worth.
Edit history
Recommendations
0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):
= new reply since forum marked as read