Hangar One is one of the worlds largest freestanding structures, covering 8 acres at the Moffett Field airship hangars site at Moffett Field in Mountain View, in Santa Clara County of the southern San Francisco Bay Area, California. The massive hangar has long been one of the most recognizable landmarks of Californias Silicon Valley. An early example of mid-century modern architecture, it was built in the 1930s as a naval airship hangar for the USS Macon. Design and construction Designed by German air ship and structural engineer Dr. Karl Arnstein, Vice President and Director of Engineering for the Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation of Akron, Ohio, in collaboration with Wilbur Watson Associates Architects and Engineers of Cleveland, Ohio, Hangar One is constructed on a network of steel girders sheathed with galvanized steel. It rests firmly upon a reinforced pad anchored to concrete pilings. The floor covers 8 acres and can accommodate six (6) (360 feet x 160 feet) American football fields. The airship hangar measures 1,133 feet (345 m) long and 308 feet (94 m) wide. The building has an aerodynamic architecture. Its walls curve inward to form an elongated approximate catenary form 198 feet (60 m) high. The clam-shell doors were designed to reduce turbulence when the Macon moved in and out on windy days. The orange peel doors, weighing 200 short tons (180 metric tons) each, are moved by their own 150 horsepower (110 kW) motors operated via an electrical control panel. The hangars interior is so large that fog sometimes forms near the ceiling. A person who is unaccustomed to the buildings extension is susceptible to optical disorientation. Looking across its deck, planes and tractors appear like toys. Looking up, a network of catwalks for access to all parts of the structure can be seen. Two elevators meet near the top, allowing maintenance personnel to get to the top quickly and easily. Narrow gauge tracks run through the length of the hangar. During the period of lighter-than-air dirigibles and non-rigid aircraft, the rails extended across the apron and into the fields at each end of the hangar. This tramway facilitated the transportation of an airship on the mooring mast to the hangar interior or to the flight position. During the brief period that the Macon was based at Moffett, Hangar One accommodated not only the giant airship but several smaller non-rigid lighter-than-air craft simultaneously. Exterior panels removed, September 2012 There has been an ongoing debate over the future of Hangar One. As the 21st century began, maintenance shops, inspection laboratories and offices along its length helped to keep the hangar busy, and plans to convert it to a space and science center were proposed. 2003 Plans to convert it to a space and science center were put on hold with the discovery in 2003 that the structure was leaking toxic chemicals into the sediment in wetlands bordering San Francisco Bay. The chemicals originated in the lead paint and toxic materials, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), used to coat the hangar. Proposed options included tearing down the hangar and reusing the land, or cleaning the toxic waste from the site and refurbishing the hangar for future preservation. 2006 An offer to clean the hangar and coat its outsides with solar panels to recoup the costs of cleaning was proposed by a private company, but the plan never saw fruition due to its cost. 2008 August, The US Navy evaluated options for remediating the PCBs, lead and asbestos; the Navy proposed simply stripping the toxic coating from the hangar and leaving the skeleton after spraying it with a preservative. The Navy claimed that to reclad the structure would cost another $15 million and that this is NASAs responsibility. This was regarded as a partial victory by campaigners. September, NASA indicated that it was still urging the Navy to restore the hangar, but that it is willing to help save the structure; in particular, NASA is in favor of re-covering the structure at the same time as it is stripped. 2010 December, The US Navy is remediating the PCBs, lead and asbestos, and NASA is evaluating options for reuse of the hangar. Some historic and nonprofit groups would like the hangar preserved as a historic landmark, as the hangar is a major Bay Area landmark and historic site. 2011 April, After months of planning and preparation, work to remove the exterior panels began, requiring the biggest scaffolding job in the history of the West Coast. The work was completed in mid-2012. 2012 - 2016 2011 October, Google top executives Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt proposed paying the full $33 million cost of revamping Hangar One, in exchange for being able to use up to two-thirds of the floor space to shelter eight of their private jets. 2012[edit] September, it was reported that proposals to restore the hangar had been rejected by NASA administration, and that the government would instead direct its efforts toward leasing (or selling) the Moffett facility. 2014 NASA & GSA select Planetary Ventures (a subsidiary of Google) to manage Hangar One and Moffett airfield, and Google pays $1.16 billion over 60 years for the lease. Popular Culture 2009 Hangar One was also used as a set location in the 2009 remake of Star Trek as a shuttle bay for Star Fleet Academy in San Francisco. 2011 In popular culture, Hangar One can be seen in various episodes of the Discovery Channel TV show Myth Busters. For instance, the show used one of the smaller hangars to disprove the myth that it is not possible to fold a sheet of paper in half more than seven times. The sheet of paper covered nearly the full width of the airship hangar. Other episodes of Myth busters have utilized the hangar to test myths such as Inflating a football with helium allows longer kick distances and Airworthy aircraft can be constructed of concrete. Stay Tuned for updates of progress
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 15:37:18 +0000
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