Aircraft hangar Award Winning Twin Cantilever Design

openfor airport

Completed in early 2022, this dual cantilever hangar at Biggin Hill Airport, UK was built in conjunction with the main contractor. It is the largest cantilever roofed hangar to be built in the UK for more than 50 years. The complex cantilever design allows the roofs to safely span the hangar without support from any internal columns, creating a vast floor space capable of housing up to 14 business jets at any one time. With a 165m long central core supporting two 45m cantilever roofs, it is the UK’s second largest after a 46.5m cantilever hangar built at RAF Brize Norton in 1967.” As a modern hangar, the Bombardier building is designed to be incredibly robust against unforeseen events and has been thoroughly checked against our own full-scale testing.” Wind loads were checked with codes of practice, against our own full-scale testing and computational fluid dynamics to ensure that even with the doors fully open the hangar will remain within tight deflection tolerances. The roof features an underslung crane, requiring even tighter deflection tolerances than those needed for the 165m long rolling hangar doors each side. We worked closely with the main contractor and the client to keep costs down and shape the structure to be as efficient as possible for manufacturing and design. As well as a state-of-the-art hangar, the development also comprises of a workshop, and office space and 650,000 sq. ft of apron area and surrounds. It used 1600 tonnes of steel and 300,000 sq. ft of cladding. We provided conceptual and detailed design, fabrication and erection of both the steel frame and the full building envelope including cladding, windows, doors, decking and vents.