Boeing 747 oxygen system

Boeing 747 oxygen comes in three tiers: flight-crew quick-donning masks worn above FL250, cabin-crew protective breathing equipment, and passenger masks with chemical oxygen generators. Sizing assumes a pressurisation failure with a rapid descent to 10,000 ft.

Airliner oxygen on the 747 is delivered in layers: high-pressure demand masks for the two pilots, protective breathing equipment for the cabin crew, and chemical-generator masks that deploy from the ceiling for passengers.

Key facts
Flight crew Quick-donning demand masks, mandatory above FL250
Cabin crew Protective breathing equipment (PBE) with its own generator
Passengers Drop-down masks fed by chemical oxygen generators
Sizing case Rapid descent to 10,000 ft plus continued supply to land

Regulations require each flight-crew member on duty above FL250 to have a mask that can be donned quickly from its ready position and that supplies oxygen on demand; the pilot flying must wear oxygen at all times above FL250 unless quick-donning masks are fitted.

Passenger oxygen covers at least 10 percent of the seats with about a 30-minute supply, engineered to support a 10-minute descent to 10,000 ft followed by continued supply. Both crew and passenger systems are sized around survivable pressurisation failures.

Sources

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the primary and institutional references below.

  1. 14 CFR 121.333 supplemental oxygen — ECFR
  2. Chemical oxygen generator requirements — US Government Publishing Office