Warbird Information Exchange

There is a company in Venezuela that has two King Airs they fly back and forth several times a week to Houston. They recently built sleeping facilities for the pilots in their warehouse. In this new facility they did in fact put in a small bar and stripper pole, and the pilots (and other company members) get regular late night "visitors". I have seen it with me own eyes! They also recently put up a big fence around the place because "you can't just have government people knocking on your door whenever they want to"

So I would also add to my hangar a high quality sound system, both for classical music while I am working, and, of course, thumping bass for "after hours" entertainment. Also, a big fence to keep the NMUSAF and Pensacola from knocking on my door whenever they want to.

A good paint booth

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http://www.biplanerides1.com/

I think I would settle for a roof, maybe a door, how about a possible window?

I dont drive a big SUV, I dont own a big house, I live in New England.

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"Hindsight is usually 20% off!"

Speaking of doors, which type do most prefer. I've been putting Schweiss Hydraulic on my last few hangars and really like them. One is 72' wide x 17', don't think I would go any wider than that though.

What about a good foam fire suppression system? I would have thought you of all people would know how reliable they are...

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Ryan Keough
Stow, MA

Ober: I'll take sectional sliders over anything else if given a choice. If you set them up correctly, any panel can be opend or closed independently based on needs and weather conditions. Quite a few times I've partially opened a single panel when we have had high winds directed at the door and not blown everything in the hangar around.

Panel doors don't have to be powered where bifold and swing doors do. Also, in the event of a mechanical failure, you don't have to worry about having imparted huge twisting loads on the door frame, or the entire door slamming down.

The drawbacks to panel doors are: More noise in windly conditions, a bit more drafty without careful seal setup and they take up a little more space than bifolds once you pass two panels for the opening.

BTW: Once you pass 20' in height, the structural requirements for any overhead type door get really large and expensive. We've got powered panel doors on all of our hangars at work as they are 30' to 50' or so high depending on the building. There are two vertical doors over in the production building that are huge. One is 250' wide and 50' tall. It takes a number of people to open them and rather large horsepower motors to run them up and down. When they have to be opened, we have to be under certain wind conditions and directions or they are required to remain closed for both building and people safety.

Interesting question.....as "our hangar" has both so what shall I say. In a hurry I love the powered bi-fold but it's persnickity - power management and height management are key and reflects the nature of the owner/installer The panelled side is great when working on the planes inside....light, air, wind, heat or warmth are more easily "controlled" and they make an excellent "cat door." All in all, the best of both worlds - powered and panels.....now if we could just get the breaker box moved to a reasonably accessible place or have owner provided lessons in stilt walking or mountain climbing...... or get more people checked out on the intricacies of the control box on the bifold...

Would Halon be a good fire suppression system for a hangar? or is the area too vast?

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Kind Regards,
Gary Lewis
J.A.F.O.

Halon isn't very good in open areas. It works way better when used in confined spaces. A combination of water deluge and CO2 deluge is probably the best if you can't afford to have a CAF system.

Also, the environuts go crazy if any Halon systems of any size gets fired. The cost of the Halon is also going to make it very unfriendly. By law and USAF directive, we are not even allowed to charge the Halon system on our aircraft. The bottles get swapped out and charged once the a/c gets to the combat zone. They are also supposed to be drained and purged before the a/c leaves the zone too...

If you are building from scratch, by using some careful layout and planning, you can equip the facility with excellent and area specific suppression systems that will keep long term costs down but provide good protection.

One thing that everyone forgets about fire protection around all of the aircraft built after the early 1930's, is having a Class D extinguisher around. From that time period, there has been increasing amounts of magnesium and a couple of other alloys that do not go out with conventional extinguishing agents. Using anything but a D extinguisher on a magnesium fire is most likely going to result in someone making a trip to the hospital and being burned is no fun.... BTDT from other fire sources and got the scars.

About 700 Billion dollars would do it.

Just make sure its foolproof, some bonehead mech at Long Beach set off the suppression system a couple of weeks back & filled a hangar full of helicopters with foam...


It's great, providing you aren't too attached to anything in the hangar that breathes oxygen when it activates...

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Those who possess real knowledge are rare.

Those who can set that knowledge into motion in the physical world are rarer still.

The few who possess real knowledge and can set it into motion of their own hands are the rarest of all.

Well said that man! & a media blasting set up big enough for a B17 fuselage...

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Those who possess real knowledge are rare.

Those who can set that knowledge into motion in the physical world are rarer still.

The few who possess real knowledge and can set it into motion of their own hands are the rarest of all.

Nice 80 by 200.Sectioned so as not to have to heat or cool the whole deal.Oh and a sea of 40ft containers to store all the tooling and patterns and fixtures.Waffle house on the airfield as well.Gotta must have.

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Hang The Expense

A Salma Hayek calendar on the wall ...

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The main winding was of the normal lotus-o deltoid type placed in panendermic semi-bolloid slots of the stator. Every seventh conductor being connected by a non-reversible tremmy pipe to the differential girdle spring on the up-end of the grammeters. Moreover, whenever fluorescent square motion is required, it may also be employed in conjunction with the drawn reciprocation dingle arm, to reduce sinusoidal depleneration.

Oh Yesssss.....I would be pleased to have her against the wall, on the desk, er..uh... oh yeah a wall calendar...yeah thats right. She is beautiful.

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Kind Regards,
Gary Lewis
J.A.F.O.