Belfast Truss Hangar
The Belfast hangar was first built on an airfield around the end of the First World War and many were constructed on RAF airfields in the period between the wars and especially during the expansion period of the RAF in the 1930's (and most of them were blown up in the Summer 1940, Battle of Britain). Quite a few examples survive, the more famous ones being the 3 double bays at Duxford Imperial War Museum and the two double bays that make up the Main Aircraft hall at the RAF Museum Hendon.
Biggin Hill had a rare Triple Bay Belfast hangar from about 1922 to 1801 Hrs 5th September 1940. (no it wasn't the Luftwaffe that destroyed it but the RAF! - don't ask). Luckily I have a large collection of books about Biggin Hill and duly set about creating a model of this hangar for CFS2, just to test my own skills and how good FSDS was. This is the result:
(I know the picture is not very clear but I had to reduce it in size in order to reduce the loading time for the page)
At the moment it has a rough camoflage scheme created on one 512 X 512 bitmap. I will improve this using the texture template tool in FSDS so that the skylights in the roof are more pronounced and the brick door guides in each corner are actually brick rendered(camoflaged of course). Plus other small items such as the roof and door construction being noticeable underneath the camoflage.
If you have FSDS and would like to try and modify the design as it currently is then you can download my *.fsc files and the test texture here:
Recent firther experimentation with FSDS on the Belfast type hangar has created these versions:
Double bay Belfast with modified side sections for the doors and small built on ofices on both sides. Based on one of the double bay hangars that once stood at Tangmere.
Single bay Belfast hangar. Office on the left hand side now has chimney for a fire. Overall width increased to make it look more like the photographs of the original. Based on the single bay hangars at Tangmere and Boscombe Down.
Last revised: April 07, 2002.