Pogo wrote:
Speaking of which, how does pressurization work ... period? For those of us who never had reason to even really think much about it before, can you (whoever) offer a brief explanation, or point to...
In a nutshell, you duct an excess of pressurized air into the cabin. The supply of air could be tapped off of a supercharger or turbocharger, or an electric pump, or bleed air from a turbine's compressor section. Actual cabin pressure is then regulated by an outflow valve (or in most cases, more than one) which controls cabin altitude by means of an automatically variable leak. Regulating outflow instead of inflow compensates for all the various leaks in the pressure vessel.
Hope that helps!