266' Clear-span Aircraft Hangar

This hangar required significant pre-planning to complete successfully. The main hangar had 266’ of clear-span rafters along six lines of the primary steel. A previous erection company suffered a catastrophic collapse due to lack of temporary bracing during the erection phase of the primary steel. Our planning determined that modular erection was a safer alternative to stick- built. However, the FAA approved only a 120’ crane boom tip height, which effectively ruled out the extra rigging that using a spreader bar would have required. To complicate matters, the site had only 15’ available around the entire hangar perimeter, (on one side of which was an active tarmac), so the entire structure had to be staged and erected practically within its own footprint. We made detailed 3d models in order to illustrate our plan to the building owners and engineers for approval, along with an extensive temporary bracing plan. Four 133’ long modules weighing nearly 90,000 lbs each were constructed on the ground and then  flown into position in pairs, connected at each end and the peak simultaneously.