WWII hangar designs, question, EATS hangar in Ashbruton, NZ.

[John Hill]

Does anyone recognise this type of hangar from our WWII Empire Air Training Scheme flying school at Ashburton, New Zealand?

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3721/10025722594_3a13f32264.jpg

View from the back of the hangar which was covered with tarpaper. The roof is corrugated steel but this is more recent as it too was originally plywood covered with tarpaper.


http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2827/10025850173_399efc81b1.jpg
View inside showing the timber trusses, there are four of these, one front, one back and two close together supporting a lifting beam. Intermediate trusses are just planks nailed together.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7414/10025720604_b02ffc1114.jpg
The trusses are of simple construction.


http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3752/10025851103_185e6f6fa6.jpg
The doors are in a sad state and have since been removed, the front truss has been damaged by the weight of the doors.

Our intention is to repair this historic hangar to a condition which will extend its life (maybe another 70 years?) and so we can use it as a storage facility for our aviation museum.

I would be interested to know if there are hangars to this design elsewhere and especially information on the style of the original doors.

[Arclite01]

That looks like a real 'one off' - never seen anything like it............

Is it held at the back with Number 10 wire ? :}


Arc

[Atcham Tower]

It looks like a local version of the steel-framed Over Blister hangar used, in various sizes, by the RAF in the UK. I suggest you post the details on the Airfield Information Exchange forum. You may not get a definitive answer but it will probably spark off a lively discussion!

[John Hill]

Hi, I have posted it to Airfield Information Exchange as you suggested, it is under NZ airfields heading.

John

[John Hill]

Certainly not a one off Arc, but it might be the only survivor if the design is unique to NZ.

[Captain Dart]

Good luck with your quest. I am associated with a museum occupying half a wartime 'Bellman' hangar in Australia. It is a battle to convince the locals of the historical significance of the building.

There are some huge wooden hangars near Tocumwal, NSW, Australia, built from green wood during WW 2 and big enough to house Liberators.

They are slowly rotting and no-one cares; must spend those taxpayers' dollars 'rescuing' illegal Islamic immigrants.

Sorry for the rant, but good luck anyway.

[John Hill]

Hi Capt'n, fortunately this hangar is not 'huge' and we are also fortunate that at some time in the past it got covered in corrugated iron roofing, somewhat interesting too to look up inside and see the couple of places where boots obviously when through the thin ply when putting the iron on!

We have two hangars for our museum, both built by/for us but they are both full of 'stuff' with things like surplus tugs and potential future exhibits cluttering the exhibition space. Our storage facilities include space and racks in our, third, workshop hangar with overflow in 40' shipping containers which is very unsatisfactory. Obviously this is a lot of incentive for our museum to preserve this hangar.

I would be interested to learn more of your museum, exhibits, facilities, how you run it etc. Our museum has a site at ttp://www.aviationmuseum.co.nz/cms/index.php
...we are an all volunteer operation funded by entry charges and whatever fundraising ventures we can manage.