John,

Don't forget that the B-29 was pressurized. Those bombers took lots
of bullets through the pressure vessel during WWII and Korea. A
bullet does NOT cause explosive decompression, it just adds another
leak to an already very leaky fuselage/pressure vessel and generally
won't even cause a loss of pressurization. The outflow valves are
nearly a foot in diameter, so a dozen bullet holes aren't going to
change things very much.

The tests were run over 50 years ago, but everyone has forgotten the
results.

All the best,
Rick

(John Galban) wrote in message . com...
Last week we were discussing the possible effect of a bullet piercing
the skin of an airliner at altitude. Oddly enough, last night I saw a
promo for next week's "Mythbusters" show on the Discovery channel.
Apparently, they're going to be conducting some experiments to find
out exactly what effect a bullet will have on a pressurized airliner.

The hosts of the show usually do a pretty good job of simulating the
scenarios that they're investigating, so it should be interesting.
The airliner episode should air next Sunday night on the Discovery
channel.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)