Business aviation and GA hangars

How does Business aviation and GA hangars work, step by step?

1. 1

   Step 1: Establish the fleet mix and the clear height

   The operator describes the aircraft they expect to hold and how they intend to park them, including nesting arrangements where aircraft are tucked around each other. From that the designer sets the clear span, the clear depth and, critically, the clear height at the door, which the tallest tail governs. On most projects a margin is deliberately built into the height, because the cost of a little extra clear height at design stage is trivial compared with the cost of a building that cannot take the aircraft the operator wins next year.

2. 2

   Step 2: Resolve the dual brief of hangar and terminal

   The building has to store aircraft and receive passengers, and those two functions want different things. The designer works out where the lounge, reception, crew facilities and offices sit, how passengers reach the aircraft without crossing working areas, and how the security boundary runs through the building. Architectural ambition is settled here too, because feature cladding and glazing have to be reconciled with an industrial frame, a door that occupies an elevation and the need to keep the span clear.

3. 3

   Step 3: Select the door type on clear opening and appearance

   Door selection at this scale has real choice, and the decision is made on the clear opening achieved, the headroom lost, speed and reliability of operation, weather sealing and how the door presents when open and when closed. The supplier's loads, rail or fixing levels and deflection limits are issued into the frame design. Where the door forms a visible elevation of a building intended to look good, its finish and the way it sits in the facade are designed rather than left to the supplier's standard product.

4. 4

   Step 4: Found the frame, the runway and the apron interface

   Foundations are conventional for the frame, but the door runway or track remains a precision item and still lands at the join between building and apron. The designer decides how it is founded, how movement between building and apron is accommodated and how water is kept away. Apron levels in front are set so there is no step at the threshold and no ponding, since aircraft are moved across that line constantly and passengers walk over it.

5. 5

   Step 5: Erect and clad the frame

   Erection is standard steelwork with a designed sequence and temporary bracing until permanent restraint is complete. Cladding and any feature envelope follow, and where the architecture is expressive the interfaces between industrial cladding, glazing and the door elevation need care, because that is where a well-intentioned design usually starts to leak. Airside working rules apply in full, including crane approvals, foreign object debris control and escorted deliveries.

6. 6

   Step 6: Cast the serviced floor

   The floor is designed for concentrated wheel loads and for tugs and towing equipment, and it is kept as clear and as flat as possible so aircraft can be moved and nested freely. Any pits, ducts and service outlets are fixed and surveyed before the pour and kept out of the manoeuvring area where they can be. Drainage runs through interception. Because aircraft are frequently repositioned, floor markings and the positions of fixed equipment are planned around movement rather than around a static layout.

7. 7

   Step 7: Fit out the lounge, offices and support spaces

   The passenger and crew accommodation is fitted to a higher standard than the rest of the building, and its acoustic and thermal separation from the hangar volume matters, since a lounge that hears every door movement and smells the hangar is not the product the operator is selling. Security separation between landside and airside is built in physically as well as procedurally. Services, heating and ventilation for the accommodation are designed independently of the hangar volume, which is expensive to condition and usually is not.

8. 8

   Step 8: Commission, demonstrate and hand over

   Doors, services, lighting and the fire protection designed by the fire engineer are commissioned and demonstrated, and the authority is satisfied before use. Staff are trained on the doors and the safety systems and on the manual release arrangements. Because these buildings are often operated by small teams, the maintenance regime is set up plainly and the door in particular is put on a schedule, since it is the item whose failure most visibly affects the customer.