In order to build and store aircraft of all shapes and sizes, suitable steel hangar buildings are needed to keep them safe, secure and protected from the elements.
Modern pilots and aeroplane owners can simply buy a kit build steel building to suit their needs, but in the era of the pioneer aviators, there was a mentality of making do and building around what was available.
In the case of Orville and Wilbur Wright, this took the form of a giant wooden shed at Kill Devil Hills, near the village of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, located next to their wooden workshop.
Other pioneers relied on spaces underneath bridges or anywhere with enough shelter to protect the wings, one of the most influential pilots of the 20th century literally crash-landed into the future of hangar design and went on to make history inside it.
Like many important discoveries, it started with a newspaper contest.
Newspaper Planes
In 1908, the British tabloid newspaper The Daily Mail was dealing with a circulation issue, and in order to fix it, it launched a somewhat unusual competition that would go on to inspire history.
Crossing the English Channel is a long-time fascination for both English and French pioneers, and after the race to swim the Channel of the mid-19th century and the achievement of the 1903 Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, Lord Northcliffe has a rather unusual idea.
He would offer, through his newspaper The Daily Mail, a £500 prize (worth £50,000 adjusted for inflation) for the first heavier-than-air aircraft to fly across the English Channel, with the bare minimum being a flight across the Strait of Dover from the White Cliffs to Calais, or vice versa.
Initially, this was simply seen as a publicity stunt, with the idea of a plane reaching that distance being incredibly unlikely, even if Lord Northcliffe had an earnest belief that Wilbur Wright would win it.
However, several early aviators were interested, including Wilbur’s protege Charles de Lambert, Hubert Latham, considered to be the favourite to win, and Arthur Seymour flying a biplane made by Gabriel Voisin.
Mr Seymour did little more than submit the paperwork to the Daily Mail, and Mr de Lambert did little better himself. Mr Latham had a lot of publicity surrounding his flight but his first attempt led to a sea landing, the first in history.
Finally, Louis Blerot arrived in Calais, but his hopes were dashed by a terrible test flight between there and Sangatte, when the plane developed trouble and crashed into a farm in Les Baraques, roughly halfway between the two towns.
Once he hit the ground he rolled his monoplane into a steel cattle pen, and whilst finding his bearing and ensuring he was not too injured, he realised that the steel structure was perfect for his record-breaking plans.
He set up his base in Les Baraques, ordering three more cattle pens to serve as makeshift hangars for his Bleriot XI aircraft.
On 25th July 1909, he would make history flying across the English Channel, crash landing in Dover after a 36-minute flight and winning the now-doubled £1000 (£100,000 adjusted for inflation) prize from the Daily Mail.
That day, as the Daily Express famously put it, Great Britain was no longer an island, and the steel hanger was established as the primary way to store aircraft
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