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Carlos- You wrote "Okay, call me stupid. There must be a good reason not to carry full tanks in an airplane, but for the life of me I can't see it. Cargo bays in planes are not pressurized. Okay, so you're carrying a tank that's holding in about 200 bar. Worst thing that can happen is, the plane flies to the moon, and the tank now has to hold 201 bar. What's the big deal? A blown tank might cause an accident. But that's what rupture discs are supposed to prevent, right?" OK, Stupid- Here's the deal. The cargo bay on EVERY pressurized aircraft IS pressurized! Think about it - what shape do those long, skinny baloons take on when inflated. It's a round tube, right? Why? 'Cause if you wanted that round tube to have one flat side, you'd have to make that one side a LOT stronger (and heavier) than the rest of the baloon. What shape is an airliner? Right - a long tube. Wanna guess why? How strong and heavy would the (flat) floor structure have to be to withstand the loads of pressurization? A LOT! I'm a mechanical engineer (and pilot)who spent 4 years working at Boeing (on 757, 737-300, 727 and -just a little -767). The airlines and aircraft manufacturers will spend a fortune to get every ounce out of an airframe design. Just think about how much it costs in fuel to haul even 1 extra lb of weight around over the lifetime of an airliner (as opposed to the profit generated by 1 more lb of payload). As to the thing about one extra bar of pressurization in the tanks - I agree, except for one thing...I remember being in my favorite dive shop one Friday night (many years ago..) when the safety blew on somebody's tank that was being filled. A crowded dive shop emptied instantly (as did the filling trough). You never heard such a noise in your life! I think if that happened to and airplane that I was flying on, I would instantly turn seat 16A (or whatever) into an ejection seat - powered by a stream of shit!. And I think I would have a hundred or so people ejecting ahead of me.The aircraft, however, probably would not be damaged...the airlines are just poor sports who consider this sort of thing unacceptable - THAT'S WHY THE MAKE YOU EMPTY YOUR TANKS! (OOOOOH -YOU JUST BEGGED FOR IT!) Now, fill your tanks and go diving. Ray
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