[dschuler]

Very creative idea, I wouldn’t have thought of that.

So standard pressure at sea level is 29.92inHg, a 737 MAX can sustain 39k ft altitude indefinitely I suppose, where the exterior air pressure would be 7.66inHg. The cabin is normally pressurized to the equivalent of 8k ft, giving 26.63inHg. The fuselage could withstand a pressure differential of 26.63inHg - 7.66inHg = 18.97inHg (at least, possibly more).

That’s 63% higher than regular pressure at sea level. Not bad.

If you gave each patient a full economy row, that’s about 60 patients per plane, so 48k patients across 800 grounded 737 MAXs.

[dorfsmay]

What create the air pressure in an airplane? Is it external air speed? Or compression from the engines?

If the latter, how does it work on airplanes with needless engines?

[dschuler]

I don't know much about it, but I think it's usually provided by pressurized bleed air from the engines.

There are cabin pressurization test carts for use on the ground, as well as start carts to provide bleed air for starting engines, and bleed air in turn can supply cabin pressurization in flight, although this probably requires some rigging on the ground.

Interestingly, they switched to electric compressors for the 787 [0] because those no longer provide bleed air from/to each engine to simplify the plumbing.

[0] https://aerosavvy.com/aircraft-pressurization/