Steel Rising (Part Five)

Edit: Originally titled “Steel Rising (Part Four)” by mistake – corrected because I’m apparently obsessively anal.

Six weeks ago we started raising the steel for our hangar expansion out at the CAF SoCal location in Camarillo. Four weeks ago the longitudinal beams were in place. Two weeks ago the roof was going on and the ramp concrete was ready to pour. Last week the exterior walls were being put up.

(Click to view full size image.) About 99% of the skin on the exterior walls are up now, the only parts remaining being above the hangar doors. That will be done after the doors are installed.

From the north end right near the taxiway, the huge space in front of us is the CAF (our) portion of the hangar, almost twice as big as our existing two hangars combined.

We’ll be able to fit two B-25s in here at once, along with many of our “smaller” planes.

It really is impressively huge, especially for an outfit our size. I’ve seen bigger on my trips up to the NASA Armstrong facilities on Edwards Air Force Base and at Palmdale where SOFIA is kept – but that’s NASA and the Air Force. For the local group of a non-profit, this is a big deal.

Down at the south end, the wall separating our section from the one being leased by the EAA was going up today.

The EAA (where I’m also a member) will have much more space and a much better facility than they had before. Everybody wins!

The small-ish middle section shown in the foreground, between these support columns and the EAA’s space, will be used for storage and repairs on our ground equipment (which up until now has all been left outside) as well as (probably) machine shop areas and parts storage. It’s also where the restrooms and store rooms will be, as well as facilities to be used by caterers and other hosts when the space is rented out for other functions. (We rent out our museum hangar for things like weddings, movie and photo shoots, charity events, high school reunions, birthday parties, and so on. It’s a big chunk of our annual operating income. I’m told this new hangar will be the largest available meeting space in Ventura County when it’s completed.)