Large Portable Inflatable Structures And Hangars for Airports

Company BUILDAIR
Date 09.12.2014

 

Aircraft engineers of Lufthansa Technik Budapest do not have to worry about freezing winter weather going forward, as a huge special inflatable hangar has been commissioned at their Budapest base, the dimensions of which allow indoor parking of an Airbus A 320 or a Boeing 737.

The unusual technical solution was necessary to implement because the Ferihegy-based Lufthansa Technik Budapest received so many orders for the winter period that their existing hangar capacity – accommodating up to five mid-size aircraft simultaneously proved insufficient. Budapest Airport and Lufthansa Technik have made a joint decision to erect a temporary inflatable hangar purely for the purpose of civil aviation.

The inflatable hangar produced by Buildair of Spain was selected as a reference facility is already operated at Getafe airport in the vicinity of the Spanish capital where the division of Airbus assembling military transport and tanker planes is based. The first inflatable hangar in Europe serving purely civilian purposes is the one just erected at Budapest Airport. The floor- space of the facility reached 4 000 square meters, and it is currently foreseen to be operated for no more than 6 months in Ferihegy – for as long as it is made necessary by weather conditions. The inflatable hangar has already proven its reliability, as in the middle of October, only a few days after it was erected, it safely withheld winds of 70-80 km/hour.

 

“This type of hangar has already passed the test in Spain, but in Budapest we now have an opportunity to test the durability of the Buildair structure in more demanding winter conditions as well. The inflatable hangar is operated on the basis of the same principle as inflatable covers for tennis courts or swimming pools, but our product is much bigger and it is capable of withholding significantly stronger loads,” emphasized José Antonio Sanz, the commercial director of the Spanish manufacturer.

“The Budapest base of Lufthansa Technik is receiving more and more orders, and we perform annual maintenance and/or thirty-day overhauls for an increasing number of airlines. In aviation, the winter period is traditionally the peak season for repair and maintenance, and we can only meet the increased demand with this extraordinary solution in the winter of 2014/2015,” said Dietmar Focke, the new CEO of Lufthansa Technik Budapest who took up his post in Hungary just recently. He added, “Hungarian and foreign professionals working here are doing a great job, and thanks to the inflatable hangar we can create additional high-value jobs at our Budapest base where only a few days ago we celebrated the handover of the 100th aircraft of Norwegian Airlines repaired by us.”

“I am happy to see that our long-term cooperation with Lufthansa Technik has reached a new stage. Last year we handed over a 2000-square-meter spare-parts warehouse, this year’s novelty is the inflatable hangar. Our next project in the aviation MRO-business is the construction of a dedicated Wizz Air maintenance hangar.

Budapest Airport is ready to support the operation and success of its long-term airport partners with sustainable investments.” said Budapest Airport property directory René Droese.

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