Originally Posted by
deltahotel
Any idea why Boeing have gone for O2 cylinders rather than chemical generators? Space/weight/maintenance/cost?
For the 787 the answer is invariably, "to save weight". However, there are other considerations such as the difficulty in transporting O2 generators after the Valuejet tragedy.
Regarding BITE checks, from memory I think there's an LED indicator on each bottle/valve assembly that shows the go/nogo state of the unit. I think they are ' on demand' too which means less O2 is required and therefore a smaller bottle, which again saves weight.