Why Aircraft Hangars Cannot Be ‘One Size Fits All’

If ever the phrase ‘one size fits all’ did not apply, it is when it comes to aircraft hangars. This is partly because of the differing sizes of the aircraft that will use them, but also because of the other requirements a hangar may have.

When it comes to size, some of the differences in need are obvious. A small airfield that hosts light planes will only need small hangars, although some of them may be used to shelter several aircraft at once. Others may need to be very big, such as major commercial airport with large airliners.

An example of the latter is Gatwick Airport, the second busiest in the UK. As the Daily Telegraph reports, the airport has just opened a new maintenance hangar. The idea of this is to provide extra space to service aircraft and reduce flight delays, which is a key issue at an airport that has been rated as one of the worst in Europe for cancellations and delays.

Given the huge aircraft that use Gatwick Airport - it is one of just three British airports, alongside Heathrow and Manchester that hosts the Airbus 380, the world’s largest passenger aircraft - this hangar space will need to be very large indeed.

Some steel hangars can be even bigger, such as those used for airships. Here in the UK, some of the most famous are the Cardington Hangars, constructed back in 1916 and housing two huge airships. This was the era when the German Zeppelins were used in bombing raids, so the UK needed something just as impressive.

These vast sheds still survive today, relics of the golden age of airships, which ended with the 1937 Hindenburg disaster. The use of airships has subsequently been revived somewhat thanks to the adoption of helium, which is so much less flammable than hydrogen.

Cardington was used for storing barrage balloons during the Second World War, then modern airships in the 1980s, with the sheds being restored in the 1990s.

These huge hangars and the large ones at Gatwick will vary somewhat from the more modest needs of a small airport like Norwich. But the construction of these may have other attributes than dimensions alone.

Private airline company Saxon Air, which has its hangars next door to the airport, has applied to have 171 solar panels added to the roof, the Norwich Evening News reports.

This could have a problem for neighbours, as the panels would risk producing a severe glare on sunny days. However, the key structural issue will be the strength of the roof and whether it is sufficient to host the panels.

Given the bad reputation the airline industry has from an emissions perspective, however, the installation of panels on hangar roofs could be a major positive and help make airports greener and claw back some of the negative effects of their operations.

Indeed, it may be that these could be an option for much larger hangars, not least those at major airports such as Gatwick, given the much larger environmental impact its operations will have compared with Norwich.