Biggin Hill Airport, UK
This hangar features an unusual tailgate door, in that it is placed towards one end, not the more usual dead centre position.
Planning conditions had limited the height of the hangar to 13m, and it was essential that two of the hangars three areas would be accessible at once. Furthermore the area on the left side needed to house a Boeing Business Jet that was 12.5m high!
REIDsteel’s solution was to use a tailgate door in conjunction with a nine slab hangar door set on three tracks that covered the entire 121m length of the hangar.
This required some clever engineering to allow the slabs to ‘jump’ the 3m gap created in the top track by the tailgate opening. Although most of the weight of the doors is borne by the bottom rolling track, this top track supplies stability and the power to the doors motors and alarms.
The 4.3m tall tailgate opening takes the available height to 13.5m was sealed by a REIDsteel(?) roller shutter door.
More information on the slab doors of this hangar is available in a case study in the section Doors Within the Width of the Hangar.
