Quonset Hut Hangar With Plenty of Space for Aircraft Storage

Quonset Hut Hangar Provides Plenty of Space for Aircraft Storage

When Bill L. turned his property in Monterey, New York into an airport in 1982, it was his dream to have a nice big hangar for his ultralight airplanes.

His hobby of flying began decades ago when hang gliding became popular.

“When they started putting motors on hang gliders, it turned into the ultralight aviation,” Bill said. “So, ultralights became powered hang gliders in the beginning and then evolved into the experimental aircraft it is today.”

In 2011, Bill turned his dream of having a personal airport into a reality by purchasing a 70’W X 24’H X 80’L hangar from SteelMaster.

“I had always wanted something that would allow me to have a second floor for free space. The Quonset hut design gave me 100 percent use of that space,” Bill said. “We ended up building a full 3,500 square foot free-standing upstairs.”

After purchasing his Quonset hut hangar, Bill enlisted a couple of friends to help him put the building up.

“We’re do-it-yourselfers and we put it up totally ourselves because I wanted to save labor costs. There were two of us, sometimes other people would come and go to help,” he said.

Bill says the building took 13,500 bolts to complete and the precut and predrilled panels went together perfectly.

“The quality of the SteelMaster building was superb, all the holes lined up even with the industrial base connector. We did not have to drill once, out of 13,500 holes. It was phenomenal.”

Any time Bill and his crew had technical questions during the assembly process, the SteelMaster team was there to help.

“We got great support from SteelMaster. Any questions we had were answered.”

He opted to create his own custom endwalls instead of the steel endwalls typically associated with Quonset hut hangars.

“We custom designed and built the ends so they would be supported by the steel structure that was totally freestanding by the building itself,” Bill said. “There are five windows on each end upstairs. That gives us great light, free natural light.”

Currently, Bill stores four fully operational airplanes inside of his hangar. The hangar also has an automotive car lift inside.

Bill loves his hangar and calls it his “Shangri-La retirement facility” and says, to him, the value is priceless.

“It’s basically turned into my dream building, I just could not be happier,” he said. “The building is cost-effective, of the highest quality, the holes all lined up and the support from SteelMaster was great.”