and air conditioning equipment sizes can be reduced because
the overall heating and cooling loads are reduced, and the new,
smaller equipment is more energy efficient.
Given a hangar’s volume, planning for stratified heating and
air conditioning can further reduce mechanical equipment and
operating costs. After all, there’s no need to heat and cool the
upper regions of the hangar to the same comfort levels required
at the workstations below. Reduced heating and cooling of these
unoccupied spaces reduces energy cost forever and saves even
more money because of the ability to use smaller, less expensive
equipment at first cost. When certain duties, such as vertical
stabilizer and rudder work, must be completed at higher areas,
portable or small supplemental heating and cooling units can
In fact, there may be no reason to build those unused upper
regions in a hangar at all. Any building area not covering the tail
section of the aircraft can be reduced in clear height. Nose-in only
hangars can be designed with lower roof areas from the leading
edge toe of the vertical stabilizer forward to the hangar wall.
Accessing Natural Resources
Daylighting is free if heat gain and loss can be controlled. Today’s
advanced glass with high-tech filter coatings, new technologies
in insulated skylights and translucent insulating plastic panels
as window substitutes can all be installed to preserve energy
efficiency through controlled heat and cooling loss, and reduced
lighting loads in the hangar bay.
Fire protection systems in hangars are highly specialized
combinations of detection equipment, fire sprinklers, specialty
foam, high-speed pumps, and a large water supply. Then add the
cost of environmental controls to capture the effluent if a system
activates: huge floor drain systems and underground tanks or
outdoor basins for foam/water effluent storage. Add up all those
system components and their redundant backups, and the first
cost is enormous. Is there a better way? The newest systems rely
on foam-generating equipment that uses less water to make foam.
These newer high-expansion foam systems require less water
storage and no effluent retention.
Hangar doors make an entire wall of the building a huge energy-
Fixed and Portable Equipment
robbing opening. Even when closed, the conventional overlapping
door panels are notoriously leaky at the edges. Doors must be
opened, but those openings can be minimized to reduce energy
loss. Conventional rolling panel hangar door systems can be
configured to open only portions of the hangar needed for specific
aircraft to enter or exit. Vertical rise fabric doors can further reduce
the opening because doors not at the tail section of the aircraft
can be lowered to reduce the opening height over the wings.
Despite the light weight of these doors, they are most prominent in
two extreme climates: the arctic and the desert. The combination
of providing a reduced opening and making a tight edge seal
makes these doors a solid option.
The types and number of fixed equipment in hangars vary with
the type of maintenance work performed in each hangar. Line
maintenance equipment must emphasize speed because aircraft
arrive for unscheduled maintenance to correct specific problems
and need to be quickly dispatched. The maximum dwell time is
usually overnight. At the same time, hangars must accommodate
Hangar fire protection systems can be a costly part of hangar
design. The newest systems are capitalizing on foam-generating equipment that uses less water and doesn’t
need to retain effluent from a discharge.
Continued on page 12