(CNN) – Airport infrastructure can take a very long time to build.
Even if everything goes well, relatively simple facilities, such as hangars, can take years to build and be ready to go.
Fortunately for airports facing a short-term need to increase capacity, constructive solutions are no longer limited to the traditional domain.
Can air-filled structures provide a quick and efficient alternative to building airport facilities?
Largest inflatable hangar in the world
To answer this question, we just need to travel to the Arabian peninsula.
In Saudi Arabia, across from the main terminal of Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport, a large ribbed white structure rises from the ground to a height that makes even planes Jets parked nearby also look tiny.
This is the largest inflatable hangar in the world, built in 2019 by Buildair, a Barcelona-based company that has built similar facilities of varying sizes at several other airports. in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Buildair is one of a small group of companies, including Ireland’s JB Roche, UAE’s Aviatech and Russia’s Aviastroy, that can deploy inflatable structures on demand. Among these, Buildair has found a particular niche for very large inflatable structures.
A case in point is the hangar in Jeddah, used by a Saudi aerospace service company to maintain commercial aircraft.
At an apparent length of 81 meters (that’s usable space excluding walls), 75 meters wide and 25.5 meters high, the facility is capable of accommodating aircraft of any size. the size of a Boeing 787 or an Airbus A330.
That record could soon be surpassed as well, as the company has engineered an even larger inflatable mount capable of holding the largest passenger jet of them all. “We’re talking to a major A380 operator interested in this technology,” Jordi Pirretas, founder and chief executive officer of Buildair, tells CNN Travel.
Proprietary technology
Hangar Jeddah H75 is used for commercial maintenance.
polite Buildair
The hangar’s sinewy look, reminiscent of Michelin’s famous “Bibendum” tire guy mascot, is due to the construction made from inflatable fiber tubes covered in a layer of PVC.
Air is blown from both ends of the tubes to inflate them and keep the air pressure at the desired level continuously (the pressure inside the tube is continuously monitored by an automatic control system).
If you’ve ever used an inflatable mattress, you may have noticed that the air pressure often drops a bit over time as the air slowly drains out. And the fact that the volume of air also changes with temperature.
To prevent this, Buildair has developed a proprietary technology, called AIRTIGHT, to seal the structure and hold it in place without the need to constantly pump air into the tubes. The pressure inside the tubes is also monitored at all times by an automatic control system.
One useful property of these inflatable hangars is that, unlike brick and mortar, they allow radio frequencies through. This allows them to be considered “transparent”, which means there aren’t many constraints when it comes to their location within airport premises.
However, the air in the tubes acts as an insulator, creating an air cavity between the outer and inner walls that can be several meters wide (the Jeddah hangar, for example, has an air compartment). 7.5 meters long) so that people can work inside the hangar at any time and in any climate. The interior is equipped with lighting, climate control and fire protection, just like in a conventional facility.
Inflatable structures are not permanent, so unlike a traditional hangar, they will need to be replaced at some point. What is surprising, however, is that for an ephemeral construction, if well maintained, inflatable hangars can stay in place for many years.
Roberto Maurice Flores from Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa University, who has collaborated with Buildair in a previous role, said: “What often happens is, even when they are built in a short time, when it’s right location, operators have no reason to dismantle them. at CIMNE, a research institute of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.
Even if the exterior walls show signs of wear and tear from constant exposure to weather and sunlight, they can be partially replaced while the whole remains in place,” he added.
Assembled in hours
Hangar H45 was delivered to Hyderabad in May 2021.
polite Buildair
The main advantage of a hangar is that it can take less than three months from the initial planning phase until the hangar becomes operational. The assembly itself can be completed in a few hours.
Another bonus is that there is no need to break the ground to install them. The structure can be anchored by attaching it to movable concrete blocks or by nailing it to soft ground. In either case, it can be dismantled without leaving any permanent marks.
The flexibility and rapid deployment afforded by these inflatable structures are used in non-aeronautical civil engineering fields: for example, by providing stopgap solutions during natural disasters natural or man-made damage to critical infrastructure.
Buildair, for example, has invested in a sister company called PS Technologies to develop and build inflatable bridges that can be deployed to respond to emergencies.
These bridges, capable of withstanding a weight of 16 to 30 tons, can be installed within 5 hours wherever floods have destroyed permanent bridges.
Suppose that, instead of stretching a water source, you want to stop the flow of water on its tracks. PS Technologies is also working on an inflatable water barrier using technology similar to that used in hangars and bridges.
It will consist of a series of inflatable tubes anchored to the seabed. When needed, they can be filled with water to create a raised barrier above the surface creating a lightweight breakwater.
This flexible barrier can be raised whenever sea conditions threaten to destroy coastal areas, but will remain deflated below the surface for the rest of the time, to minimize the impact on the environment. locality and biodiversity.
Can one answer for the damage caused by rising sea levels lying in a hangar on the Arabian sands?
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