Rubb USA Vice President of Sales Sean Hickey spoke with Airport Business to give some insight from a hangar supplier’s perspective on what types of materials FBOs and MROs should consider and what codes and regulations to watch for when building a hangar.
AB: What would you say are some of the more important items for an FBO or an MRO to consider when building a hangar?
Hickey: “We talk to our clients about considering current and future needs for hangar use. Since aircraft get bigger and change sizes, it’s good to size the hangar for future growth. You want to both optimize the hangar design for current budget reasons, but think ahead for the future too. We also try to think about support spaces our clients might need inside or attached to the hangar, whether that’s office spaces or locker rooms for employees, tool shop or parts storage if it’s an MRO facility. There are also utility rooms to consider. On a high level, that is how we help guide our clients and help them determine the best hangar design for their needs.”
AB: So, it sounds like you guys try to talk to your client about future growth. Is this going to be a hangar building that's going to be something that'll be still useful in five to 10 years from now as you guys are growing, that sort of thing?
Hickey: “Yes, definitely thinking ahead and trying to make best use of the space they have, because airports are often space constrained. We want to try and help clients to avoid painting themselves into a corner, so to speak. We consider growth items like future parking arrangements, future maintenance work that could be undertaken (and space required), and equipment needed inside the hangar to support their work. We’ll often talk about maintenance activities such as engine changes, wheel changes, seat changes, heavy/light maintenance, etc. These things can affect the design of the hangar structure.”
AB: Can you give me an example of some of the differences between what would be required for heavy maintenance or light maintenance?
Hickey: “So heavy maintenance, think engine changes, major repairs. My understanding is that they'll oftentimes need to take off the engine from the airplane, and that can be accomplished either with cranes overhead mounted to the hangar structure itself, or there can be mobile floor cranes that they'll bring over to help assist with that engine removal. So that could be one example of how that would impact the design of the structure. If we've got to account for those loads of the engine change coming off and all that weight hanging from the structure, that would be different than someone who'd be using mobile cranes and wouldn't need all that weight supported from the roof.
And similarly, if they're going to be doing landing gear changes, they often need to jack up the aircraft on stands an additional eight to 10 feet. So, when you're considering the design of the hangar, you've got to account for that kind of space above the aircraft to the structure so that you're not just planning on the aircraft on the floor all the time.”
AB: What types of materials should an FBO or MRO consider?
Hickey: “I would say in order of importance would be first consideration of local codes and regulations. Is there anything prescribed in the code? For example, in Florida, certain cladding materials have to be tested for hurricane winds and wind-borne debris. So obviously you would want to make sure any materials that you use on the hangar would be compliant with whatever local jurisdiction you're building in. The second would be architecture. Is there’s a certain look or feel that the client is looking to go for. In that case, that might drive some of the decisions on what materials they use for the hangar, if they're trying to blend in with any existing hangars they might already have on the facility. The third would be budget. So, what can they realistically afford in their budget that they have for the project?”
AB: What are some of the most common trends or design requests you see from FBOs and MROs?
Hickey: “There's definitely more of an open-mindedness in the industry to utilizing different building materials and types, considering some of the issues over the past few years with supply chain and even before that. I mean, we built our first all membrane covered hangar back in 1992. But the technology on our side has been around for a while, but I would say over the past maybe 10 years or so, the aviation side of our business has really grown quite a bit. So, I would say there's more of a willingness to look outside the traditional metal hangar.
Our membrane hangars and any membrane hangars are viewed pretty favorably in the fire code. So that's a huge consideration nowadays with the concern about foam. The other things that I've noticed is some of the higher end facilities are integrating different materials like cross-laminated timber (CLT) type of exterior. I've seen that on some private and FBO type hangars.”
AB: Speaking of supply chain, what challenges have you come into regarding that? I mean, it's no secret that supply chain has been an issue in this industry so how are you working around those issues?
Hickey: “Yeah, it was definitely worse a couple of years ago. We definitely see an improvement and are fairly optimistic about former supply chain issues like longer delivery times or for us. The hardest thing for us was more variable pricing and not really being able to count on what we had been previously using for forecasting costs on projects. That side seems to have simmered down a little bit, hopefully. For us, the challenge is still, and I think for most people, the labor side of things, in the field with construction being still very busy, it can be hard to find and then keep good people, so everyone's kind of all trying to staff their construction projects at the same time. That continues to be our biggest challenge, I think, as a company.”
AB: The industry is trending in the direction of electrification. Does that play a role in hangar design as far as the needs that are required for GSE equipment?
Hickey: “I have been to a few conferences where I've sat in on sessions about electrification at airports related to charging vehicles and potentially electrified aircraft and what to do with batteries. And I think that's still a major question mark, at least in my brain personally, of how that's going to be handled since fire safety within hangars and around big expensive airplanes is already a major focus for local code officials and fire marshals. And it seems like the mixing of batteries, the electric batteries in some of those spaces still might be a challenge. So, I don't know how that's going to be handled or solved, but to me that would be kind of the biggest challenge aside from just the general power needs, but how do we safely store those batteries and still satisfy fire safety officials?”
Sean Hickey is a business graduate of Western New England College, Sean has nearly 15 years of fabric building industry experience. His dedication to his clients, attention to detail, and passion for fabric buildings comes through in every project he works on. His experience with a wide variety of projects allows him to make creative recommendations to help find solutions for customers.
