Aircraft Hangar Fire Safety Requirements in Australia
If you’re planning an aircraft hangar in Australia, fire safety is something worth considering early.
Depending on the size of your hangar and what you’re planning to do inside it, fire requirements can influence your building size, layout, water supply, separation between spaces, exits, site access and overall project cost.
There also isn’t one fire safety specification that applies to every aircraft hangar.
A private hangar used primarily for aircraft storage can present a different situation from a commercial maintenance hangar with workshops, offices, equipment and other activities happening inside it.
At TechSpan, we don’t expect you to know which fire systems your hangar needs before you talk to us.
During Concept, we want to understand what you’re building and how you’re going to use it. From there, we can identify where your certifier, fire engineer or another specialist needs to be involved and configure the building around those requirements.
Do Aircraft Hangars Need Fire Sprinklers in Australia?
This is one of the first fire safety questions you might have, and the answer is: it depends on your building.
The National Construction Code specifically identifies aircraft hangars as an occupancy involving excessive fire hazard for the purpose of its sprinkler provisions.
Under NCC 2022, sprinklers are required in a fire compartment containing an occupancy of excessive fire hazard where either the floor area is more than 2,000 m² or the volume is more than 12,000 m³. Aircraft hangars are specifically included in the NCC’s list of these occupancies.
That gives us two dimensions to watch as your hangar concept develops.
| NCC sprinkler trigger for excessive-hazard occupancies | Threshold |
|---|---|
| Fire compartment floor area | More than 2,000 m² |
| Fire compartment volume | More than 12,000 m³ |
The volume threshold is particularly important for aircraft hangars because your building can become tall quite quickly.
Your aircraft height influences your clear door opening. The opening influences the structure around it. And together, those decisions influence the overall building volume.
That’s why we want to identify this while we’re developing your hangar, rather than checking it once the building size has already been locked in.
You can read the current provisions directly in the National Construction Code fire-fighting equipment requirements.
Hangar Volume Can Matter Before Floor Area Does
It’s easy to look at the 2,000 m² figure and assume a smaller hangar won’t reach the sprinkler trigger.
But floor area isn’t the only consideration.
Take a simple 40 m × 40 m hangar.
That’s 1,600 m² of floor area, so it’s still below the 2,000 m² floor-area threshold.
At an average internal volume equivalent to 7.5 m over that floor area, however, you’re already at 12,000 m³.
| Example hangar | Floor area | Indicative volume at 7.5 m |
|---|---|---|
| 20 m × 30 m | 600 m² | 4,500 m³ |
| 30 m × 30 m | 900 m² | 6,750 m³ |
| 30 m × 40 m | 1,200 m² | 9,000 m³ |
| 40 m × 40 m | 1,600 m² | 12,000 m³ |
| 40 m × 50 m | 2,000 m² | 15,000 m³ |
These examples are there to show how quickly volume can increase. They aren’t a fire design for your hangar, and the actual volume and applicable requirements need to be assessed for your building.
But it demonstrates why we consider fire requirements alongside your building dimensions.
If you’re still working out the size of the building itself, our article How Big Should an Aircraft Hangar Be? explains how we start with your aircraft and develop the hangar around it.
What You’re Doing Inside the Hangar Matters
Size is only part of the picture.
We also need to understand how you’re going to use your hangar.
The NCC classifies buildings according to their use. Class 7b covers storage-type buildings, while Class 8 includes process-type buildings where activities such as repairing, altering, assembling or cleaning goods take place.
That means we don’t automatically assume every aircraft hangar has the same classification.
If you’re storing your aircraft, your building may present a different classification question from a hangar where you’re carrying out commercial aircraft maintenance or repair work.
You might also want offices, amenities, workshops or other spaces incorporated into the building.
We’ll want to understand those uses early because they can influence how your certifier approaches the building and how we need to configure it.
The final building classification is something your certifier or building surveyor will confirm, rather than something TechSpan determines on its own.
You can explore the classifications in the ABCB’s building classification guide.
Offices and Workshops Can Change the Conversation
You might be picturing one large aircraft space with an office and amenities tucked into the corner.
From your point of view, it’s one hangar.
From a building design and compliance point of view, we may need to look more closely at how those spaces relate to each other.
Our commercial aircraft hangar at Cessnock Airport is a good example.
The 27 m clear-span TechSpan hangar incorporated office and amenities space alongside the main aircraft area. The project required a precast concrete fire separation wall between the office and the main hangar to meet the applicable building code requirements.
That’s a real example of why we want to understand everything you’re putting inside your hangar before we get too far into the building design.
The office isn’t simply an internal fit-out decision. It can influence how we configure the building around it.
What About Fuel and Other Flammable Materials?
If you’re storing an aircraft, there’s obviously fuel involved.
But there’s an important difference between fuel contained within the aircraft and separate fuel or flammable materials you’re planning to store or use inside the building.
If your operation includes separate fuel storage, refuelling infrastructure, drums, maintenance chemicals or other hazardous materials, tell us about that during Concept.
Those activities can introduce additional considerations for your fire strategy, building layout and approvals.
You don’t need to determine the solution yourself.
We need to know what you’re planning so the right specialist can assess it and we can make sure the resulting requirements are incorporated into the building.
Will Your Hangar Need Hydrants, Hose Reels or Extinguishers?
Potentially.
Sprinklers aren’t the only fire protection measure that can apply to an aircraft hangar.
Depending on your building, you may also need to consider fire hydrants, hose reels, portable fire extinguishers, detection and alarm systems or other fire safety measures.
Which systems apply will depend on factors such as your building classification, size, layout and the final fire safety strategy.
This is where we rely on the relevant certifier, fire engineer and other specialists to establish what your project requires.
Once those requirements are clear, TechSpan can coordinate them into the building.
Fire Water Can Become a Bigger Site Question
If your hangar requires sprinklers or hydrants, we also need to know how those systems will be supplied.
On some sites, the available infrastructure may make that relatively straightforward.
On others, particularly airport, regional or more isolated sites, fire water can become a much bigger part of the project.
You may need to consider water availability, tanks, pumps, services and how firefighting vehicles can access the building.
That’s why a fire requirement inside your hangar can quickly become a site planning requirement outside it.
If you’re still assessing your site, our Aircraft Hangar Site Planning and Airport Considerations guide looks at the broader questions we work through before positioning the building.
Fire Separation Can Influence Your Layout
Fire separation isn’t necessarily something you’ll see when you’re first sketching out your hangar.
But it can affect where we put different spaces and how they’re constructed.
If you’re including offices, workshops, amenities, storage or other uses within the same building, your project team may identify separation requirements between different areas.
That can affect walls, doors, structural details and the way spaces connect.
This doesn’t mean you need to work out the fire separation before you talk to us.
It means we want to know what you want inside the building early enough that we can bring the right requirements into the design.
Large Hangars Can Bring Different Fire Considerations
If you’re planning a particularly large hangar, there can be another layer to consider.
The NCC contains specific provisions for large isolated buildings, including certain Class 7 and Class 8 buildings.
Under the current provisions, the pathway can involve matters such as fire compartment size, open space around the building, sprinkler protection and perimeter vehicle access. For certain Class 7 or 8 buildings up to 18,000 m² in floor area and 108,000 m³ in volume, the NCC sets out specific conditions under which larger fire compartments may be permitted.
You don’t need to memorise those thresholds.
What matters is recognising that as your hangar gets larger, fire safety can start influencing more than the systems inside the building.
It can influence the building footprint and the space we need around it.
You can read more in the NCC compartmentation and separation provisions.
Smoke Management May Also Need to Be Considered
Large internal volumes can also bring smoke management into the conversation.
The NCC’s smoke hazard provisions work alongside other fire safety measures to support safe evacuation and manage smoke within buildings. Depending on the building and compliance pathway, the solution can involve measures such as detection, sprinklers, smoke exhaust or smoke venting.
Again, we don’t apply one smoke management solution to every aircraft hangar.
Your fire engineer and certifier will determine what your building requires.
We need to make sure the structure and building layout can accommodate that solution.
The NCC smoke hazard management provisions provide the detailed regulatory framework.
Fire Safety Can Affect Where We Put Your Hangar
Your aircraft isn’t the only thing that needs access to the building.
Depending on the compliance pathway for your project, firefighting access and open space around the building may also need to be considered.
For large isolated buildings, for example, the NCC includes requirements around open space and perimeter vehicular access as part of particular compliance pathways.
That’s why we don’t want to position your hangar based solely on where the aircraft door works best.
We also need to bring together aircraft movement, apron space, vehicle access, neighbouring buildings, lease boundaries, drainage, services and any applicable fire access requirements.
Our Aircraft Hangar Design Guide: What to Consider Before You Build brings those broader building decisions together.
You Need to Be Able to Get Out Too
When you’re planning an aircraft hangar, it’s natural to spend a lot of time thinking about how the aircraft gets in and out.
We also need to consider how you get out.
Emergency exits and travel paths form part of the broader NCC fire and life-safety requirements.
That means your personnel doors and internal layout can’t simply be positioned wherever they’re most convenient after the main hangar has been designed.
We need to coordinate them with the way you’re using the building and the applicable compliance requirements.
Your aircraft door solves aircraft access.
It isn’t automatically your fire exit strategy.
Fire Safety Is a Design Input, Not an Add-On
This is the part we think is most important.
We don’t want to finish your hangar concept and then ask what fire requirements need to be added to it.
If your project requires sprinklers, fire separation, dedicated water infrastructure, particular exit arrangements or firefighting access, those decisions can affect the building we’re designing.
So we want to understand them while we still have options.
During Concept, we’ll start with what you already know about your hangar.
What aircraft are you accommodating?
Are you storing it or maintaining it?
Do you want a workshop?
Are there offices or amenities?
Will you store fuel, chemicals or other materials?
What do we know about your site?
From there, we can identify where specialist fire or compliance input is needed and bring those requirements into the building as the concept develops.
You don’t need to arrive with a finished fire strategy.
Who Will We Need to Work With?
That depends on your project.
Your certifier or building surveyor will be important in establishing the building classification and compliance pathway.
For some projects, a fire engineer may also need to develop or advise on the fire strategy.
Depending on your site and building, there may also be input from your civil engineer, hydraulic consultant, planner, airport operator or other specialists.
TechSpan’s role is to work with that information and bring it back into the building.
We want the aircraft space, offices, workshops, structure, doors, services and site requirements to work together rather than being resolved separately.
That’s part of how we approach the Concept and Configure stages of our 3C Advantage.
What Should You Tell Us?
You don’t need a fire report before you start a conversation with us.
What helps is telling us what you’re trying to build.
We want to know your aircraft, how you plan to use the hangar, what other spaces you want inside it and what you already know about the site.
If you’ve already spoken to a certifier, fire engineer or airport operator, bring that information with you.
If you haven’t, we can identify the questions that still need answering as we develop the concept.
Our Aircraft Hangar Design Checklist: What Your Engineer Needs Before Concept Design can also help you understand the information we’ll work through with you.
Start With the Hangar You Need
Fire safety can look complicated because there isn’t one answer that applies to every aircraft hangar.
Your building size matters.
Its volume matters.
How you use it matters.
The other spaces inside it matter.
And your site can matter too.
You don’t need to resolve all of that before you talk to TechSpan.
Tell us what you’re planning to build and we’ll start with the hangar you need. From there, we can work with your project team to identify the applicable requirements and configure the building around them.
That’s what the Concept stage of our 3C Advantage is for.
We get clear on the requirements early, Configure the building around them and then move through to Construct with greater certainty.
Talk to TechSpan about your aircraft hangar.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do aircraft hangars need sprinklers in Australia?
Not every aircraft hangar automatically needs the same sprinkler system. However, the NCC specifically identifies aircraft hangars as occupancies involving excessive fire hazard. Under NCC 2022, sprinklers are required in relevant fire compartments where the floor area is more than 2,000 m² or the volume is more than 12,000 m³. Other requirements may also apply depending on your building and compliance pathway.
Is the 2,000 m² sprinkler threshold the only figure I need to consider?
No. The NCC provision also includes a volume threshold of more than 12,000 m³. Because aircraft hangars can be tall buildings, volume can become relevant before you reach 2,000 m² of floor area.
Are all aircraft hangars Class 7b?
No. Building classification depends on how the building is used. Class 7b is a storage classification, while Class 8 covers certain process-type uses including repairing and altering goods. Your certifier or building surveyor should determine the appropriate classification for your hangar.
Can offices and workshops affect the fire requirements?
They can. Different uses within your hangar can influence building classification, separation and other compliance requirements. That’s why we want to understand all the spaces you’re planning to include while we’re developing the concept.
When should we look at fire safety?
Early. Fire requirements can influence the size, layout, structure, water supply, services, exits and space around your hangar. We want those requirements informing the concept rather than being added after the building has already been designed.