Ideal hangar size

[gliderman]

I am looking at the possibility of having a 55'x60' hangar built for my C170 and a friends RV6. Does anyone have a feel for how much more room will be left over for a couple of stored C172's in the back corner? In other words does anyone already have a hangar or share a hangar with more than a couple of aircraft. How convenient is it. Does anyone know of a web based design tool for hangars and aircraft that would allow someone to play around with floor space and aircraft sized to scale.

Thanks in advance
Mike Maskell

[jrenwick]

That sounds doable. I keep my 3 airplanes in a 40x60 hangar with a 40' door.

55x60 is deep enough that it would probably be worth having doors on both of the 60-foot sides. I don't know of a tool for this, but if it were me (and I've done this in the past), I'd make paper cutouts to scale out of graph paper and see how the airplanes fit together.

[Brad Brady]

Mike,
For starters the ideal hanger is half again what ever you build Our old hanger is now my shop. It is 48' X 60' we used to keep a C-195, C-175, C-170, C-172, along with a PA12 fuselage and a LC126 Fuselage against the walls, and of course the obligatory wings hanging on the wall. It worked.....Brad

John,
That is one beautiful hanger......Brad

[jrenwick]

....John,
That is one beautiful hanger......Brad

Thanks, Brad. I was lucky to be able to buy it, and I'm still counting my blessings. That photo was taken just after moving in. Now it's full of all my "stuff," and maybe not quite as pretty. But it's home....

[GAHorn]

I have a 50' X 50' and have stored a C150, C170, Bonanza and Baron in it along with my toolboxes and tractor, but it was with careful planning. The difference is that my 50x50 hangar was constructed by ME...and the cornerposts are ALL the way in the corners. Most metal bldgs are constructed of R-panel and the uprights are spaced about 8" in from the end-walls, which means you lose about a 1.5 feet of clearspan.

If I had it to do over I'd make it a 51' X 51'. Why? Because R-panel comes in 3-foot sections. My 50X50 meant I had to cut or overlap 1-foot of panel at the back corners....so my material costs were the same as a 51X51 but I lost several square feet of floorspace because I hadn't considered making certain my walls were evenly divisible by 3.

[blueldr]

To see how a hangar will accomodate various airplanes, draw a floor plan of the hangar to a given scale and then draw and cut cut some planforms of various airplanes to the same scale to see how they will fit on the drawing.

[Brad Brady]

To see how a hangar will accomodate various airplanes, draw a floor plan of the hangar to a given scale and then draw and cut cut some planforms of various airplanes to the same scale to see how they will fit on the drawing.

BL,
That is simple genius...Of course you are a genius...In my perspective...Something that worked for us was, you could put a taildragger tail under a nose wheel aircraft and make several feet more than a tail dragger to taildragger so we had a myriad of aircraft positioned in several different ways to make them fit....I have always been told that the harder you push, the more aircraft you can fit into a hanger All I'm saying is that a floor plan can be accommodated.....Brad

[n2582d]

Mike, depending on how high you are planning on building the hangar maybe this or building something like it might be an option. The fact that they don't list prices probably means their prices are jacked up too. They show how you can cram aircraft vertically here.

Aero-Lift.jpg (27.5 KiB) Viewed 14640 times

Does anyone have a feel for how much more room will be left over for a couple of stored C172's in the back corner?

Are these flying aircraft or projects? If they are projects that are just in long term storage maybe disassembling/pickling them and putting them in used 40' steel shipping containers would be a cheaper alternative to them gathering dust in the back recesses of your hangar.

[gliderman]

Thanks to everyone for the great responses. The aircraft lift looks interesting but based on price might be out of my range. The 172's would be flyable aircraft owned by friends but not flown often, if at all, so would be deemed dead storage with some rental monies paid to offset the property taxes.

[wingnut]

Whatever you build, you'll find it easy to outgrow. Planning ahead is important. Mine is 60' wide, 75' deep, and my uprights are all the way in the corners like Georges, allowing more clearspan. It depend on the types of aircraft as to how many we can get in, and whether some are disassembled. I've had 8 airplanes in here before, but 2 had the wings off. The most crowded was when we had an Aerostar, Navaho, Baron, Bonanza, 2 C170's all assembled, a 170 and Piper Lance disassembled. A mix of high and low wing, and some tailwheel aircraft allow tighter stacking.
But, if your like me and seem to accumulate stuff that the wife says needs to go, it ends up in the hangar; engine blocks, heads, intakes, transmissions, furniture?. All the stuff I know 'm going to need someday
I added a 20'x60' length on the back end for office, bathrooms, and climate controlled work area (making the total building size 60'x95'). I decked it to have upstairs storage, which is probably more important for a business than individuals storing their planes, but it's still easy to fill and nice to have for items you don't need to access often.
Hinged shelves/work benches that fold down from the side and back walls are handy, and rolling work benches are nice when they are just low enough to roll under the outboard ends of most low wing aircraft. I don't care how much you plan, ALL horizontal surfaces will fill up with "stuff"

[4-Shipp]

The most practical hangar I have used was 60x60 with two doors. The doors were on adjacent walls vs. opposite walls. The advantage was we were able to get each plane out without moving the other. We normally only kept two planes but on occasion had 3 or 4 in there at a time. This door arrangement made it very easy to maximize the space with out having to do extra airplane moving. It might not be a factor now with the partner's plane being an RV, but it will sure give you options. If your budget allows and the ramp/airport layout allow it, give it a thought.

Bruce

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

I own a lift and keep my Cub on it. It works for me but I'd rather have my plane on the ground if I could afford it. The lift can be a solution to store more airplanes in a small hanger. If you are going to own two airplanes and hanger both but buy a lift and only have to rent one hanger you will pay for the lift in about 3 years so it can be a good deal. In the north east where I live hangers go for $450 a month and up and in many cases there is a waiting list that can take years till a hanger is available at any cost.

[W.J.Langholz]

Bruce
$450.00 a month OCH!!!! I'm reading this with interest because I would like to add on to my shop or put a seperate hangar up. It has been hard to justify because I only pay $75.00 a month and they mow the grass and move the snow, includes electricity, no heat. i have a 50x50 shop an may just add another 15-20' with a bigger door and bring the plane home.


W.

p.s. we had a inch of snow over night and it' 15 above. I was getting worried that Santa wouldn't come

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Yes W $450 and up a month and one of the airports near me in Bucks County in Doylestown has a waiting list that has taken about 10 years for your name to move from the bottom to the top. You would think hangers would be being built right and left but most airports around us barely have enough space for a runway let alone new hangers.

If I understand you W your paying $75 for a hanger and someone else maintains the facility. WHAT a deal I pay $82 a month for the privilege of tying my 170 outside. Of course being outside 24/7 has just added a really nice rat patina to my plane so I don't mind. It is actually cheaper to strip and repaint your airplane every 5 years than hanger it around here.

But if I were you W I'd be adding a hanger to your shop. I would love to have the airplane close by to tinker with rather than have to drive a half hour to it only to find I left a tool at home. If you had the hanger at home then you could have a choice, bring the plane home if the runway is mowed or leave it at the airport when your runway is covered with snow.

[flat country pilot]

Build it as big as you can afford.

If cash is not an issue, stop at 60' X 100'

Bill