Airport Business - 36

HANGARS

AUTHOR Eric Donnay, Sara Davis

SOLID ANSWERS FOR

Successful Airports

Addressing the key questions about fabric buildings
for various aviation applications.

AVIATION INDUSTRY professionals involved in the
procurement of new buildings are exceedingly
aware of tension fabric structures as a cost-effective
construction option, whether for aircraft housing,
maintenance hangars, cargo handling and logistics,
or any other support facility needed at an airport.
They are equally aware that not
every fabric building style available
on the market offers the same level of
quality and performance. Therefore,
it's no surprise that fabric building
manufacturers must f ield a lot of
questions about their ability to handle
the particular needs of a given airport
application before being considered for
a project. Naturally, different suppliers
are able to answer and address those
concerns with widely varying degrees
of confidence.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
ERIC DONNAY

Eric Donnay has over a decade of
experience in customer service
and sales, in addition to 13 years of
experience in industrial, commercial
and residential construction. As VP
of Sales at Legacy Building Solutions,
Eric is responsible for managing sales
staff and processes. He is dedicated to
helping sales staff find unique solutions
to specific customer requirements.

SARA DAVIS

Sara Davis has over 15 years of
experience in sales and customer
relations. She acts as a liaison between
the customer and Legacy Building
Solutions, helping aviation clients with
their building solutions and bringing all
parties to the table to streamline and
enhance the purchasing process.

Water Mitigation
Because many airport off icials are
familiar with older style, web-truss fabric
structures - defined by their curved
sidewall or "hoop" shape appearance -
there are understandable concerns about
the ability to mitigate water runoff from
the roof of a fabric building. Hoop
structures all share the same issue of rain,
snow and ice running right down to the
base of the building.
With no ability to control water
runoff, these traditional fabric structures
are at the mercy of the surrounding grade,
meaning they could potentially propel
excess water onto the tarmac, damage
landscape and foundations around the
building, or even allow water to infiltrate
the structure itself. These shortcomings
are at odds with the requirements of
today's airport authorities, which almost
universally demand that new building
construction will include gutters and
downspouts to control runoff.
A key advancement was introduced
when Legacy Building Solutions began
applying rigid-frame engineering to its
fabric building designs. The concept uses
structural steel I-beams instead of a web
truss frame, making it almost identical
to conventional construction methods,
but with the added benefits afforded by
tension fabric membrane cladding.

36 \ AIRPORTBUSINESS / OCTOBER 2019

With a rigid-frame fabric building,
engineers can incorporate overhangs
- at a standard width of 18 inches or
customized to the user's specifications -
and much more. Gutters and downspouts
can be included in the planning stages
and easily applied. In colder climates,
icebreakers can be added to break up
snow coming off the roof.
Rigid-frame design is not purely
about adding bells and whistles,
however. Anything and everything
about the building specifications can
be established at the beginning of the
project. For example, the existing grade
for a new building site might already be
sloped to help with water mitigation.
In such a case, engineers may need to
adjust the sidewall height on one end of
the building to match the surface grade.
Such adjustments are not only possible
with rigid-frame design, but common
and simple to execute.
Water mitigation is also a big
advantage when the internal applications
taking place inside the structure call for
a water supply, as controlled water can
obviously be collected and stored as well.
Fire suppression systems are a requirement
for many airport buildings under
National Fire Protection Administration
(NFPA) 409, depending on the activities
that will take place inside or, at times, the
discretion of the local fire marshal.

Built to Handle Hanging
Loads
The biggest question from project
planners about fire suppression is not the
water supply, nor is it about the material,
since PVC fabric is non-conductive and
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