[hwillis]

maybe, but that's also pretty unlikely. For reference here's where musk talks about it: https://youtu.be/sOpMrVnjYeY?t=3156

No real indication he means a spiral.

There are a lot of problems with a spiral. Thin sheets of steel, even hot rolled, are very affected by the rolling process. There's also the weld line going up in a spiral. That will cause uneven heat diffusion and expansion, which is a recipe for disaster given that the skin will be cold enough to liquify helium on one side and boiling hot on the other. Then red hot during reentry. Straight lines don't have the same problems.