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Thoughts on this Oxygen Bottle??


boxerdogi
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I was going to sell this, but I'm not sure what it was used for. It is about 22 inches long and about 4 inches across. A little too big for a Bail Out bottle. Has the same dial as a Bail Out bottle. Looks like 60's to early 70's vintage. Any of you guys have any ideas? Many thanks...Tom.

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Rakkasan187

Looks like it has been around awhile.

 

There appears to be 3 different hydrostatic test date stamps on the bottle... 3-59 (March 1959) 3-67 (march 1967) and 10-72 (October 1972). There is (was) critieria for bottles like this one to be hydrostatically tested to ensure no compromise in the metal (cracks, leaks etc) in order to prevent a catastrophic failure at high altitudes with the amount of pressure.

 

So this bottle may have been in service from around 1959 through 1972 or at least up until the last hydro stamp.. 13 year life is about right...

 

Possibly an aircrew bottle for a high altitude bomber or other type aricraft, KC135, EWACS, B-52...

 

Fire extinguishers and SCOTT air bottles fort fire departments also go through hydrostatic pressure testing..

 

Leigh..

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This is intriguing. The wiring on the bottle means it is intended to be shatterproof like the bottles for large life rafts but why would these bottles be dropped unless they were part of a medical resupply? And the reading I have just done says the Air Force discarded the green high pressure bottles for the yellow low pressure ones, except for bailout because of the explosion danger from shrapnel. However the manifold looks like it could be the type used for replenishing from the aircraft Lox system. What might be helpful is transcribing the P/N.

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Might just be a cylinder used for a civilian light aircraft that have portable oxygen systems installed. If it is Id assume it was an emergency O2 setup being a high flow 1800psi bottle like the bailout bottle in back chutes and certain ejection seats. Has the same gauge as the bailout bottles. Doesn't appear to have any form of a demand regulator but has an interesting little on off knob vs being constant flow like a smaller bailout bottle. The USAF crew "walk around" bottles are yellow and low pressure. The aircraft filling port I believe is the witches hat looking valve. Here are a few pics of the one I have:

 

A6.jpg

A21.jpg

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Might just be a cylinder used for a civilian light aircraft that have portable oxygen systems installed. If it is Id assume it was an emergency O2 setup being a high flow 1800psi bottle like the bailout bottle in back chutes and certain ejection seats. Has the same gauge as the bailout bottles. Doesn't appear to have any form of a demand regulator but has an interesting little on off knob vs being constant flow like a smaller bailout bottle. The USAF crew "walk around" bottles are yellow and low pressure. The aircraft filling port I believe is the witches hat looking valve. Here are a few pics of the one I have:

 

A6.jpg

A21.jpg

Yes, the aircraft connector is to the right in your photo and it IS quite possible for this green bottle to be a civilian bottle except for the wire wrap which is what stumps me. I have looked at a couple photos of general aviation bottles and none of them have the wire wrap but it looks like there are some of spun fiberglass which I have also seen used with some of the military rafts, primarily the airdropped IBSs & Zodiacs.

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The valve looks like the civilian valves my mother had on her small oxygen bottle. In all the years of being in military aviation we never had any wire wrapped bottle for the aircraft (KC-135) I DID use and serviced the walk around bottle that rr01 posted.

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The valve looks like the civilian valves my mother had on her small oxygen bottle. In all the years of being in military aviation we never had any wire wrapped bottle for the aircraft (KC-135) I DID use and serviced the walk around bottle that rr01 posted.

That wasn't my picture, I borrowed it from earlier in the thread.

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I found a number on the bottom, 38098 and a small H in a shield. Not sure if that helps any?? I also believe this is a Navy item, not Air Force...Tom.

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I found a number on the bottom, 38098 and a small H in a shield. Not sure if that helps any?? I also believe this is a Navy item, not Air Force...Tom.

The number on the "Bendix" sticker on the stainless manifold would be the most helpful.

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  • 2 weeks later...
northcoastaero

It is possible that the oxygen bottle was mounted on the outside of the ejection seat or in the seat survival kit that

the aircrew sat on?

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benguttery

1000 psi in a 20 inch bottle is a lot of oxygen. However the F-111 capsule had 2-3 times this much. Most bailout bottles were/are small. They only need to get you to the ground or under 12,000 feet or so. I am thinking this could be a civilian aircraft bottle. Large corporate or airliner perhaps. Standby oygen for rthe pilots. Do you know what "aviation oxygen" is? It is regular oxygen, but with the moisture taken out. The use of medical oxygen at altitude would fog and condensate and be a big mess. So, you want the dry stuff. No use for oxygen in a life raft. These usually use CO2 bottles.

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mohawkALSE
I am thinking this could be a civilian aircraft bottle. Large corporate or airliner perhaps. Standby oygen for rthe pilots.

 

 

Thats what I would have to agree with looking it over a number of times and searching around the net. That regulator or on/off valve has an old 60s civilian look to it. There are no Navy or Air Force contract numbers or stock numbers listed anywhere on it. Some airliners has small bottles similar used for emergency walk around type setups. I think the Dassualt Falcon 50 my father flew 12 years ago had a little walk around back up emergency bottle similar to this but much newer.

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This has been a most interesting thread. I made reference to the bottle being akin to life raft bottles based on the steel wire wrapped around the outside. Military life raft bottles are wrapped this way to prevent a rupture during a crash which is why I thought this O2 bottle might also be intended for airdrop.

I know about this wire because it has to come off the 20 man life raft bottle to make the bottle into a SCUBA tank or a double set which is better.

The hydrostat is for 2100# while I believe aircraft O2 pressure is under 100#. The yellow bottle pictured has a low pressure manifold and is rechargeable, something required of all walk around bottles.

The green one would use a different recharging adaptor because of the higher pressures involved, a type adaptor not normally used in aviation. Whether the bottle is charged to 2100# or not, it still requires the same adaptor. One that threads onto the manifold and will remain in place under pressure.

The green bottle requires higher pressure testing, always to 2100# which costs more money than the low pressure bottles.

I believe the ICC number refers to the testing facility and while not a big deal it IS another interesting facet.

And consider this bottle could have an industrial application such as welding though my bottles are the short. fat type they DO come in all sizes.

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  • 8 years later...
LLBuchman33
On 4/20/2012 at 2:33 PM, rr01 said:

Yes, the aircraft connector is to the right in your photo and it IS quite possible for this green bottle to be a civilian bottle except for the wire wrap which is what stumps me. I have looked at a couple photos of general aviation bottles and none of them have the wire wrap but it looks like there are some of spun fiberglass which I have also seen used with some of the military rafts, primarily the airdropped IBSs & Zodiacs.

 

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LLBuchman33

This is an A-6 USAAF walk-around or take-away portable oxygen tank.  They used the A-4 on B-17-s; the A-4 was smaller and usually painted green.  The A-6 was a larger capacity oxygen bottle, usually yellow, and was used on B-24's.  One of these hung near every crew position plus a few in strategically useful places on the plane.  There were 13 A-4's on B-17's.  I don't know the number or A-6's on B-24's but I'd bet it was a similar number.  The idea was that a crewmember who needed to move about the plane would unhook from the onboard oxygen system, clip a take-away portable oxygen bottle onto his flight jacket, hook his oxygen mask into it and then walk about the plane.  Each bottle was good for less than 20 minutes.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry, I think you might be mistaken about that. Not an A-6. Post #5 above verifies that. There are many oxygen cylinders and this is just one of them. The differences between them aren't obvious to the casual observer. For one thing, I wouldn't put 1800psi in an low pressure tank like the A-6.

My vote is civilian. They have sold them for a long time for private pilots wanting to fly over 10,000ft for extended periods.

JMO,

Dave

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Just for reference on my past pics above,  its not a USAAF setup, the tank is in fact the A-6 type but the regulator is a A-21 which was well post WW2 era.  It was a 1960s era walk around bottle and can see it has a Property of US Air Force.

The OP's green high pressure tank is probably whats left of what was a civilian type walk around setup.   I have one that was made by Robert Shaw Controls that was designed to work with military type O2 masks.  Actually had come with a A-13A/MS-22001 type mask that seemed to be setup like a quick don smoke/emergency oxygen mask.  I cant say if it was used for any military aircraft ops, but the whole setup had lots of military components including a CRU-79 mini regulator that was attached to the on/off regulator of the tank itself.  Here is a pic of high pressure walk around, again not the same tank as the OP, but Id say it was originally part of some type of similar setup.  There are numerous walk around/emergency setups out there.

20161101_172343.jpg

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