The reliance of the semiconductor industry on pyrophoric silane gas as the primary source of silicon entails high risk and attendant cost. In order to enhance safety and improve control we are engaged in a systematic study of the decomposition characteristics of alkyl silanes with a focus on chemical species and conditions that exhibit silane type behavior or that actually produce silane. We have prepared a series of air stable innocuous liquid alkyl silanes, RSiH3, that generate silane and stable organic (R-H) byproducts upon flow tube pyrolysis. T-buty1, t-hexy1, and t-decyl silane as well as the corresponding R-H products exhibit a range of physical properties : room temperature vapor pressures, for example, range from several Torr to over an atmosphere. Relevant physical properties as well as kinetics and mechanisms of the hydride transfer process will be described and correlated with structural characteristics of the RSiH3 precursors.