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A hangar
is an enclosed structure to hold aircraft in protective storage. Most hangars are built of metal, but wood and concrete are other materials used. The word hangar
comes from a northern French dialect, and means "cattle pen."
Hangars protect aircraft from weather and ultraviolet light. Hangars may be used as an enclosed repair shop or, in some cases, an assembly area. Additionally, hangars keep secret aircraft hidden from satellites or spyplanes.
Aircraft storage halls on carriers are also known as hangars.
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HANGAR TICKETS
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History
Carl Rickard Nyberg used a hangar to store his
Flugan
in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
In 1909,
Louis Bleriot crash-landed on a northern French farm in
Les Baraques (between
Sangatte and
Calais) and rolled his
monoplane into the farmer's cattle pen. At the time, Bleriot was in a race to be the first man to cross the
English Channel in a
heavier-than-air aircraft, so he set up headquarters in the unused shed. After returning home, Bleriot called REIDsteel, the maker of the cattle pen, and ordered three "hangars" for personal use. REIDsteel continues to make hangars and hangar parts.
The
Wright brothers stored and repaired their airplane in a wooden hangar they constructed in 1902 at
Kill Devil Hills in
North Carolina for their
glider. After completing design and construction of the
Wright Flyer
in
Ohio, the brothers returned to Kill Devil Hill only to find their hangar damaged. They repaired the structure and constructed a new workshop while they waited for the
Flyer
to be shipped.
One of the largest hangars built was for the former Soviet Air Force, it has now been converted to house a rain forest. Other large hangars are Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand measuring 885x295x115 feet, NAS Sunnyvale in the United States measuring 1,133x308x198 feet and the
Filton Aerodrome in
Bristol,
England, measuring 1,155x115x263 feet.
Airship hangar
thumb-filled blimps stored in one of the two hangars at the former
Marine Corps Air Station in
Tustin, California
Airship hangar (also referred to as "airship sheds") are generally larger than conventional airplane hangars, particularly in terms of height. Most early airships used
hydrogen gas to provide them with sufficient buoyancy for flight, so their hangars had to provide protection from stray sparks in order to prevent the flammable gas from exploding. Hangars that held multiple craft of this type were at risk from chain-reaction explosions. For this reason, most hangars for hydrogen-based airships were sized to house only one or two such craft.
thumb,
Gloucestershire,
England
During the "Golden Age" of airship travel (starting in 1900), mooring masts and sheds were constructed to build and house airships. The British government built a shed in
Karachi for the
R101, and the Brazilian government built one in
Rio de Janeiro for the German
Zeppelins. The largest airship hangar, at the
Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in
Akron, Ohio, was used for the construction of the
USS Akron
(ZRS-4) and
USS Macon
(ZRS-5). Its length was 1,175 ft (358 m) and its height 200 ft (61 m).
The
US Navy established ten "lighter-than-air" (LTA) bases across the United States during
World War II as part of the coastal defense plan. Hangars at these bases are some of the world's largest freestanding wood structures. Seven of the original seventeen hangars still exist, with one of them now housing the
Tillamook Air Museum in
Tillamook, Oregon.
Sheds built for rigid airships survive at
Moffett Field,
Lakehurst Naval Air Station, Base Aérea de Santa Cruz (
Rio de Janeiro), and
Cardington, Bedfordshire.
Gallery
References