Specialist Design of Airport Hanger for British Airways Glasgow Hanger

The Scope

British Airways had two problems to solve at its Airbus maintenance hangar in Glasgow, Firstly to provide one suitable Nose Dock capable of providing docking facilities for three different aircraft types namely the AIRBUS A19, A20 & A21. Secondly to provide a storage facility capable of storing all internal trim panels & seats and eliminating removal and outside storage costs.

The Solution and Work Completed

Our specialist design team was soon on site gathering as much information as possible relating to both aircraft variants and suitable location for the proposed new nose dock facility.

There were a number of design constraints which included:

• A conflict of interest between the Tail height and roof obstructions were soon identified, thus seriously limiting the positioning of the aircraft within the depth of the hangar.

• With the limited positioning identified it became obvious that part of the nose dock would have to be mobile in order to accept the variants in fuselage length from wings to nose section, some 8000mm in all.

• Using a CAD model the Tow Tug operation was plotted out 10 ensure that supporting steel work would not impede the exit of the Tow Tug once the aircraft was in the docked position.

• The majority/of services would require the aircraft to be “jacked up” some 600mm (this allows the undercarriage to be activated).However the nose dock would have to be fitted with a lower access point to provide access for routine services when the aircraft would remain on its wheels.

The proposed structure was positioned within the hangar to accept the longest aircraft (AIRBUS A21) the static structure was “U shaped” with a profiled powered nose section capable of traversing some 8000mm to provide docking for the smaller (AIRBUS AI9).

The mobile nose section was positioned in the centre of the “U shaped mezzanine and fitted with a series of trap doors to provide working height variant.

Project Summary and Key Points

Structure specifically designed to accommodate both “jacked” and normal working height. The mobile nose section was equipped with two speed mode, the initial press of the hand held control set engages walking speed. as the nose section comes within lOOOmm of the aircraft nose the speed of the mobile section automatically changes to creeper mode.