Warbird Information Exchange

I'm about to plunk down some green for a new hangar project and was wondering if anyone here has done the same. I've just vetted 25 different quotes from practically every hangar building company on the web and have narrowed the field down to two different designs/companies. Both are dedicated factories, not steel building wholesalers. I learned to steer away from those guys real quick.

Anyway, hangar candidate #1 is a solid "I-beam" steel truss design that you see on most corporate style hangars. The company I've chosen is R&M Steel because they deliver the entire hangar in a pre-engineered package that's ready to assemble including the Schweiss bi-fold door which is incorporated into the hangar kit at the factory. That's a big deal since the vast majority of the other companies had no clue how to reinforce their structures to even handle a bi-fold door.

Hangar possibility #2 is from Kentucky Steel Truss, and is a "open truss" or "web truss" design. The building's main trusses apparently are not as resilient as the I-beam type, but they make up for it by using more trusses, girts, and purlins in their design. Pound for pound, this design has more steel in it than the I-beam type, and the company claims that the greater distribution of steel throughout the design makes for a stronger overall structure.

I was hoping to get an opinion on either of these designs from someone other than the salesmen at the respective companies. If you have a steel hangar, tell me about it, and your experiences with it. Thanks!

_________________
Rob Mears
'Surviving Corsairs' Historian
robcmears@yahoo.com
http://www.robmears.com

Both types have advantages and disadvantages. First, though, are you sure that you want a bi-fold door? The power craps out or the belts or cables get cut and you are S.O.L. on getting the door open until it gets fixed. Also, they get a bit hairy in a big wind......From the correct direction and with enough speed and you can get the door to start flapping up and down....

I beam structure tends to give you more headroom for the overall height of the building. Open truss will let you lay decking if it is engineered into it from the start. I beam tends to be bolt up type construction while open truss is generally welded.

I has to have the perimeter foundation poured and cured prior to hanging any steel. Open typically uses pipe type verticals and they can be set with no foundation poured at all, other than the socket for each pole.

Either way you go, add in enough on the design to support and allow the height for a 3 ton capacity bridge crane....it's well worth the few extra hundred bucks on the front end. Also make sure that with either type construction that you have enough headroom for anything you think you will ever have in there, then add for leveling and jacking. An example is my Fairchild is just under 14 feet tall on the gear, but put it on jacks for a gear swing, and I need just under 18 feet.

One other item is start the hangar as close the taxiway as you reasonably can, so that if you want to add to it, you can without having to move the main doors.

What are you planning to keep in it Rob, and and I can make some more suggestions based on that.

Craig

Well, the concept right now is to put four GA planes in there, though we're not sure what type yet (172, Bonanza, etc). The idea is to rent the hangar space initially to four inquiring tennants and hopefully recoup the majority of the hangar construction costs that way. If our RV-4 project is completed before then, we'll be squeezing it in there as well.

I was introduced to the 'Stack Door' design the other day while visiting an FBO in east Texas. They seem to be pretty resilient doors, and will allow us to have more usable width in the main hangar opening (54' vs. 45') - and they're simpler/cheaper too!. I might go that way if only for the added opening size, but we've had plenty of experience with bi-folds up until now with no real problems to speak of. The bi-fold on our previous hangar had to have the 20+ year old cables replaced, but otherwise no issues. We've decided to go with Schweiss' new strap design anyway if we decide to take that route. As for power outages, there is a built-in crank system for emergencies, though I'm sure I wouldn't want to have to use that more than once!

I do like the idea of providing for an overhead crane. With an 18' eve height, there should be adequate room for it. There is no official FBO at our airport, and I'd just as soon try to outfit the initial structure for that purpose as best we can should the future offer us the opportunity to move in that direction.

_________________
Rob Mears
'Surviving Corsairs' Historian
robcmears@yahoo.com
http://www.robmears.com

I agree the staked door design would offer you greater versatility than a bi-fold door can. The old hangers I work in at Wright Patterson AFB were built during WWII and they use the stacked door design that run on railroad tracks at the bottom and are suspended from the channel track above. They are easy to operate with little effort. The only thing is to make sure the very top of tracks at the bottom of the doors are level with the concrete apron where the door opening is, otherwise you will have to lay down some plywood between each track to keep them from messing up the landing gear when you tug or move the aircraft over the tracks. With the stacked door design you can easily add a foldaway fence that will allow air to come into the hanger, but will keep people and most large animals out except for birds. Most of the hangers I have worked in are the heavy I-beam type hangers. These do allow for better clearance above over a trussed type hanger. Hope this helps!

Jim