Which Unusual Aircraft Changed The Shape Of Aircraft Hangars

The most important aspect of any steel kit-build building is the ability for it to be adapted for the specific working conditions of a business.

This is especially true for aircraft hangars, which have specific design needs in order to accommodate a wide range of aircraft.

They need to be wide, waterproof, have huge sliding doors to allow aircraft to get in and out, and be built without columns that the wings of aeroplanes could potentially bump into.

However, these needs have emerged as the result of technological precedent and the gradual evolution of various types of aircraft over the years. Successful aircraft such as the Cessna 172 Skyhawk have shaped not only other planes but also the infrastructure needed to help them fly.

However, this could have been very different had some of the following unusual aircraft designs been successful.

Could An Inflatable Aeroplane Have Eliminated Aircraft Hangars?

The biggest design difficulty of an aircraft hangar is accommodating the vast wingspan used to generate the lift and control necessary for sustained, controlled flight.

How would the evolution of the hangar have changed had an airbed-style aircraft the size of a wheelbarrow taken off? It is difficult to say.

Designed as an emergency aircraft to help downed pilots get back in the air, the Goodyear Inflatoplane was groundbreaking for its time.

It used a mix of rubber, a material Goodyear was very familiar with and nylon mesh that allegedly could take six bullets and still fly, could be inflated in five minutes with less pressure than a car tyre and could fly nearly 400 miles over 6 hours at up to 10,000 feet.

Had it succeeded and been adapted for civilian use, there was the potential for aircraft the size of large rucksacks to be common. Perhaps the technology would have been so useful that traditional civilian aircraft hangars would have been reduced to the size of domestic garages.

Unfortunately, two crashes in tests, one of which claimed the life of Lt. Malcolm “Pug” Wallace, were enough to end the project in 1973, following over 25 years of development.

Could A Personal Helicopter Have Led To Smaller And More Numerous Hangars?

The idea of personal flying machines has led to both fascination and dreams of a future where every home has a hangar rather than a garage, but at the same time, it has led to trepidation about the practical considerations of everyone taking to the skies.

These have taken various hypothetical forms, from flying cars to quadcopters and other vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft with wingspans short enough to fit in a garage, but one of the first and most surreal was the De Lackner HZ-1 Aerocycle.

Designed to be an aircraft that anyone could fly with 20 minutes of instruction, the Aerocycle could have revolutionised personal mobility and led to a lot of small garages and hangars to store the machines in had it been approved for civilian use.

Ultimately, it was deemed too dangerous and was abandoned.

Could A Wingless Aeroplane Have Led To Narrower Aircraft Hangars?

Can you make an aeroplane without wings? NASA ultimately found out that you could, although the M2-F1 ultimately had a much bigger effect in outer space than on the airfield.

An unpowered glider concept aircraft, the M2-F1 ultimately led to the development of the Space Shuttle, one of the most famous spacecraft ever made.