Oxygen bottle question ?
What do they make the Oxygen bottle's out of for the 747. I have no large jet experience but in smaller aircraft i have seen Steel, Aluminium even a composite type bottle. In any case i would guess these bottles are rated for many 100's of times more pressure then they are filled to. Just thinking of gas cylinders in general they are overengineered (that's why you don't see some ones bbq exploding ever weekend) Usually when you hear of some sort of trouble relating to a gas bottle some one has knocked it over or hit it or some such and the valve has sheared off. I could imagine something like this happening then it would blow of with some force and could puncher the skin with the valve. The corresponding fluid hammer of the explosive decompression would tear the skin to the tear strips (as designed) and that front faring would get blown of by the escaping air. But something serious would surely have to have happened to the bottle. It's not the movies. They don't just explode. I would suggest even if they had not been checked for 25 years and had corrosion all over them.
Sorry I rambled. What where the bottles made of ?
And what is the orientation of the bottle in the hold. (is the valve at the top is it on the wall lying down with the valve facing the rip in the skin. is there a collar around the valve is it steal)