NAS Santa Ana, September 2010

Photos taken September 2010 of the more Northern WW2 Blimp Hangar at NAS Santa-Ana (today they are in the city of Tustin, CA South of LA) The former base is closed and partially redeveloped as of photo date.

In September, 2010, both hangars were still standing. When development resumes, the plan is to tear the other one down.

The hangars have wood truss arches, made of substantial timbers. The wood is heavily treated with borate salt for both fire and insect protection. The truss bases (footers) are concrete and sit on something like 1,000 concrete filled metal pipes (piles) which go 40 to 60 feet down.

The doorframes are mechanically separate from the hangar, to prevent doorway windload from blowing down the hangar. The door pillars are very substantial, and hold up a large box beam. Severe "Santa Ana" winds can exceed 80 mph, with door load approaching something like 1 million pounds.

The basic 1942 wood truss arch hangar design was strengthened for high wind load, and further strengthened for possible earthquake load, for this base.