Aircraft Oxygen Masks Are Essential Equipment — Here's How They're Tested for Safety
When you’re flying at up to 1,900 miles-per-hour in a fighter jet, you want to be confident that all of your equipment is working perfectly — particularly your face mask.
Edited by EE Staff
Cool Stuff
Apr 20, 2026
Manufacturers of products and equipment that will be used at different altitudes must perform testing so that the products meet or exceed customer performance expectations. These tests are often run through simulators that mirror the exact application. Whether we’re talking about an oxygen mask or oxygen regulator for an aircraft or vehicle or aircraft fuel components, altitude simulation is the easiest way to test the equipment in a controlled environment.
Flight mask leak testing is a good example of the benefits of using a simulator. For the application shown in the drawing, the customer needed testing the design of aircraft mask components. The customer was looking for a means to make small changes in altitude inside their simulator while also achieving higher accuracy than they had been able to achieve with the device they were presently using. They turned to Proportion Air’s QPV high-resolution pressure regulator for the simulator.
The QPV is an ultra-high resolution electro-pneumatic, closed-loop proportional pressure control valve designed and manufactured for very sensitive application. In this case, it was the perfect product for leak testing at low pressures. The customer found that they were able to achieve an unprecedented accuracy of ±5 feet at 50,000 feet—an accuracy of ±0.0013 PSI of vacuum. QPV pressure regulators use a variable orifice valve, which eliminates the digital steps of traditional ON/OFF solenoids.
The QPV technology used in the altitude simulator is available for a broad range of chambers from small chambers to room-sized chambers. The company often designs and manufactures semi-custom and custom solutions for its customers.
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Lead image courtesy of DepositPhotos.com.