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WW II Hangers 8th AF Airfields


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Gents:

Planning on building a hanger(s) that would be found on a typical WW II 8th AF bomber base. Does anyone have pictures of the interior or know how they were constructed? I'd assume it was steel truss construction but at that time it may have been timber. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in Advance,

Mark

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Hi Mark! Interior shots can be a problem to find but you can tell a lot by the exterior design how the interior would be built in those days.

I think that you will probably find that they were built of wood unless the USAF used prefabs of some sort.Try looking for paintings or pics of airfields of the era,even aerial shots would give you some good ideas.

Cheers! John.

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This isn't exactly what you were looking for but maybe you can find something here that will help. The site is rather large and I haven't fully explored it so maybe there is a link to something you can use. Perhaps even contact the site's administrator to see if he has any suggestions. Let me know what you find, I am interested in building a backdrop for my planes similar to what Matrixone and Wiggy have done for their photo shoots.
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Gents:

Planning on building a hanger(s) that would be found on a typical WW II 8th AF bomber base. Does anyone have pictures of the interior or know how they were constructed? I'd assume it was steel truss construction but at that time it may have been timber. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in Advance,

Mark

Mark

Many of the USAAF airfields in the UK were built by the RAF. Unless you are building a particular airfield where hangars were known to be different then I would suggest you are looking at C or T type hangars in the main. The C type were the brick built structures mainly constructed during the pre-war "expansion" period, when time and money permitted more solid construction. There were 2 sizes, a short for fighter airfields (ie RAF Church Fenton) or longs for bomber bases such as Scampton or Waddington. I think they were actually described by the number of "bays" (7 or 11 IIRC) but I have never been able to work out what a bay is!!

T2 hangars were essentially corrugated metal over steel framework and were designed to be built quickly and cheaply. Many have stood the test of time and are still in use. Have a look Here for some pictures of both types. If you look at some of gallery pages you might find some interior shots of some of the hangars.

You will get a lot more information on the various types of hangars used from the series of 'Action Stations' books. They are a good source of reference and each (of the 10 or 11 volume) series covers a particular area of the UK. IIRC the last in the series was Action Stations Overseas but there is also an accompanying book which looks at airfield buildings and architecture. I can't remember the proper title but will at the weekend when I get home. Either way they are a fascinating series and full of good reference material.

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Roland:

Thank you very much. The photos on that site are great for what I'm trying to build. To answer your question about "bays" A bay is the area between four columns. What they are refering to is the length. A 7 bay building with a bay length of 20 ft would be 140 ft. long. An 11 bay building with the same bay length would be 220 ft. long. Spacing of exterior columns for most steel structures is 20 ft. In hanger construction all of the columns are exterior and as result the trusses are on 20 ft. centers as well. Masonary buildings in the past have had shorter bay lengths usually but not always about 15ft. or 16 ft.

Mark

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Mark S, and anyone else looking to diorama British military airfields

Have just got home and checked. The book which might help with your hangars is "British Military Airfields 1939 - 45" by David J Smith ISBN 1-85260-038-1. The book covers the layout of all airfields, and most of the makor buildings to be found on RAF/FAA airfields. Hope it helps if you can find a copy.

:cheers:

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  • 3 weeks later...
Let me know how you get on - I am in Norfolk and may be ab le to photgraph a T2 if I can get access.

This might help with measurements.

David.

Hi David

where do these drawings come from ?

they look quite easy to understand, and with some suiting pictures this can do the job

I'm also currently working on British airfield architecture for 1/48 diorama, since I visted Duxford and Cossford last year

Hi Mark

The book I did find at these museums bookshops is :

British Military Airfield Architecture, from airships to the jet age, Paul Francis, ISBN 1 85260462 X

about 220 pages £19.99

hope this may help

Cheers

Marc

Edited by mark58
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