Comments by "Vikki McDonough" (@vikkimcdonough6153) on "British Cabin Pressure Flare Pistols (Quite Unusual)" video.

  1. 2:12 - I think I heard an airplane going over in the background while you were saying that - how appropriate! :-P
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  2. That size hole wouldn't be large enough to cause explosive decompression, even at altitude. Still not something you'd wanna play around with, though.
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  3. 0:46 - Granted, not all high-altitude bombers had pressurized fuselages. As late as World War II, most strategic bombers had unpressurized fuselages where the crew wore oxygen masks throughout the mission - which actually makes quite a bit of sense, since a pressurized fuselage has to be heavier, repeated cabin-pressurization cycles produce all sorts of interesting fatigue problems (especially with aluminium alloys like those used for most metal aircraft, which are among the most-fatigue-prone metals that have ever been used for the primary structure of anything), and providing all that pressurized air requires an air compressor, which generally has to be driven from the engines, which can be a significant drain on the engines' useful power output when we're talking about WWII-era piston engines.
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