Location: Ottawa, ON
Building Size: 50' x 50' (15.2m x 15.2m)
Application: Fabric Aircraft Hangars, and Aircraft Maintenance and Aircraft Storage Fabric Covered Buildings

Fabric Covered Buildings Versatility is Valuable for Aircraft Hangars  

Since 1971, Canadian Airmotive has provided aviation products and services to the aviation industry around the world. Its product offering includes clean air heaters, invented and manufactured by Canadian Airmotive and sold to militaries in Canada, the United States, and other militaries abroad.

At its manufacturing facility located at the Ottawa Airport, Canadian Airmotive is home to a fabric covered helicopter hangar, originally purchased for cold air storage. Most recently, the company has decided to have the aircraft fabric building insulated, add bi-fold doors, and utilize it year-round not only as a fabric aircraft hangar but a fabric covered building used as an aircraft maintenance shop as well. "We're quite happy with this aircraft fabric building," says Ron Williams, president, "it's a bright place to work. We are going to end up with an approximate R-12 insulation factor, and then we'll put some heat in this aircraft fabric building, some fans and so forth, so it can be used on a year-round basis."

The 50' by 50' fabric aircraft hangar building provides Canadian Airmotive with 2500 square feet of working space. The fabric structure includes a small office with all the necessary operational requirements including fax, internet, and phone. "We have no objections from the staff working in this aircraft fabric building, they find it bright and cheerful," says Williams. "It's cool in the summertime, and it doesn't get exceedingly hot. Even in January and February, without insulation, we find that if it's a nice sunny day, the aircraft fabric building is not that cold inside from the radiant heat of the sun."

Five years ago, when Canadian Airmotive needed a helicopter storage building, Williams looked into using a fabric building structure. "Interestingly enough, I saw fabric covered buildings start to pop up around the neighborhood. I pulled in at the Heather Hills Golf Course, three or four miles from here to ask questions about their fabric covered buildings.  Two and a half months later, we had this aircraft fabric building up and running."

The aircraft fabric building size was carefully selected to maximize storage space for the aircraft. "We selected this size building because we operate a 3 bladed rotor system which requires a minimum of a 30 foot door expansion to get in the aircraft fabric building and leave the rotor blades on," says Williams. "We've had as many as 9 aircraft in this fabric building and still have plenty of room to walk around, maintain and work on the aircraft, open the accessory doors and so forth."

The helicopter fabric storage hangar building has proven to be an efficient storage space and its versatility will now prove to be beneficial as a fabric  aircraft maintenance building for Canadian Airmotive. The features of the fabric building are ideal for both applications.

"Everybody's quite amazed at how bright and solid it is even in the most windy conditions that we get here in Ottawa," shares Williams. "And we have not had condensation in this fabric building accumulate to the amount where it actually drips. We don't at this time have any extra fans to evacuate the air in the fabric structure. We've had it for 5 years now, had absolutely no problems with it, and we're quite satisfied with our aircraft fabric building and its performance."

"Everybody's quite amazed at how bright and solid this aircraft fabric building is even in the most windy conditions that we get here in Ottawa." 

- Ron Williams, President, Canadian Airmotive