What Size Aircraft Hangar Door Do You Need?
Your aircraft hangar door needs to give you enough clear width and height to move your aircraft comfortably in and out of the building.
That sounds simple, but the right opening isn’t just your aircraft’s wingspan and tail height with a standard allowance added around them.
We look at the aircraft, how you move it, how it approaches the hangar and the clear opening you need. We also need to understand how that opening works with the building structure and specialist door system.
The important thing is to establish those requirements early.
Once we know what your aircraft needs, we can configure the TechSpan building around it and coordinate the specialist door requirements as part of the overall hangar design.
Start With Your Aircraft
When you tell us what you’re flying, we can start putting some dimensions around the opening.
We’ve developed our own aircraft sizing database covering a wide range of aircraft models. This gives us the wingspan, length and height we need to start planning the hangar.
For the aircraft opening, two measurements are particularly important:
| Aircraft dimension | What it helps us determine |
|---|---|
| Wingspan | Clear opening width |
| Aircraft height | Clear opening height |
These are starting dimensions, not the finished door size.
If your aircraft has a 15 m wingspan, we aren’t going to design a 15 m clear opening and call it done. We need to understand how much practical clearance you need and how the aircraft will actually move through the opening.
If you’re still working through the overall size of your hangar, our What Size Aircraft Hangar Do You Need? guide looks at how we use your aircraft dimensions to establish the wider building requirements.
How Wide Should Your Aircraft Hangar Door Be?
Wingspan gives us the starting point for the clear opening width.
From there, we look at how the aircraft will enter and leave the hangar.
Are you towing it, moving under its own power or manually positioning it? Can you approach the building square-on, or do you need to turn close to the opening? How frequently will the aircraft move in and out?
Those details influence how practical the opening will be.
We’re not trying to find the narrowest opening your aircraft can technically fit through. At the same time, there’s little value in making the door substantially larger than your operation requires.
The aim is to establish a clear width that works for your aircraft and the way you use it.
How High Should Your Aircraft Hangar Door Be?
For height, we start with the highest point of your aircraft. For many fixed-wing aircraft, that’s the tail.
We then establish the clear height needed to move the aircraft comfortably through the opening.
It’s important to distinguish between aircraft height, clear opening height, the physical door system and overall building height.
| Dimension | What we’re looking at |
|---|---|
| Aircraft height | Highest point we need to accommodate |
| Clear opening height | Unobstructed height available to the aircraft |
| Door height | Physical dimensions of the selected door system |
| Building height | Structure required around and above the opening |
For us, the clear opening is the important starting point.
The structure above the opening, roof configuration and selected door system can all influence the overall building height. At some airport sites, there may also be planning or aviation constraints affecting how high you can build.
Once we understand the clear height the aircraft requires, we can work through those requirements as the building develops.
Clear Opening Matters More Than Nominal Door Size
When you’re looking at aircraft hangar doors, it’s easy to focus on the advertised width and height of the door itself.
We’re more interested in what is left clear when that door is open.
Different door systems operate in different ways. Depending on the system, panels, tracks, framing or other components can influence the usable opening.
That’s why we establish the clear width and height the aircraft needs first.
The specialist door system can then be selected and engineered around that requirement, rather than choosing a door and discovering later that the usable opening doesn’t provide the clearance you expected.
The Approach Can Change What Works
The opening itself is only part of the aircraft movement. Apron space, taxiway or taxilane position, nearby buildings, fences and other obstacles can all influence how easily you can line up with the hangar.
If you have a generous apron and can approach square-on, aircraft movement may be relatively straightforward.
On a tighter site, where the aircraft needs to turn close to the hangar, the position and width of the opening can become more important.
We want to understand that movement before we settle on the opening and building position. Pasted text
Your Hangar Doesn’t Need a Full-Width Door
The aircraft opening doesn’t necessarily need to match the width of the building.
You may need additional clear-span width inside the hangar for maintenance, equipment, storage or working around the aircraft, while the aircraft itself only needs part of that width for access.
Our commercial aircraft hangar at Cessnock Airport is a good example.
The TechSpan building has a 27 m clear span with a 20 m wide by 6 m high aircraft door.
| Cessnock Airport hangar | Dimension |
|---|---|
| Building width | 27 m |
| Building length | 24 m |
| Building height | 6.5 m |
| Aircraft door | 20 m wide × 6 m high |
The wider building gives the client the internal space they need, while the opening is configured around aircraft access.
It’s why we consider the building and aircraft opening together rather than starting with a standard building size and adding the door afterwards.
A Large Aircraft Opening Affects the Building Structure
Aircraft hangars are different from a standard shed with a roller door in the end wall.
A large aircraft opening becomes an important part of the structural design. We need to provide the required clear width and height while also developing the structure around that opening.
As the opening gets larger, we consider the surrounding framing, how the specialist door system connects to the structure and how the resulting loads are transferred through the building. Wind conditions at the site also form part of the engineering.
This is why we want to understand the aircraft opening during Concept.
It allows us to configure the TechSpan structure around the required opening from the beginning rather than trying to accommodate a large specialist door after the building has already been designed.
Which Aircraft Hangar Door System Should You Use?
Once we understand the clear opening your aircraft needs, we can start looking at the type of door system that could work with the building and operation.
Large aircraft openings can be created using systems including sliding, bi-fold and tilt doors. Each works differently and has its own requirements around the opening, available space and building structure.
The right system depends on the project.
TechSpan’s role is to make sure the aircraft requirements, clear opening and building structure are considered together. For specialist large-door design and engineering, we can work alongside our sister company, OpenX Doors as the building and door requirements develop.
Don’t Let the Door Limit Your Next Aircraft
When we’re working through the opening, it’s worth considering whether your aircraft is likely to change.
You can have enough floor space inside a hangar for a larger aircraft and still find that its wingspan or tail height won’t comfortably clear the door.
If you’re considering an upgrade, we can look at both aircraft before the opening is finalised.
| What could change? | What we’ll consider now |
|---|---|
| Wider aircraft | Current and potential future wingspan |
| Taller aircraft | Current and potential future height |
| Different aircraft type | How it moves and approaches the opening |
| More frequent movements | Whether access will remain practical |
| Growing operation | Whether equipment or vehicles may also use the opening |
That doesn’t mean automatically making the door bigger.
Sometimes allowing additional width or height now makes sense. In other cases, you may simply be adding capacity you’re unlikely to use.
If a larger opening isn’t needed now, we can also consider whether the building and site can be configured without unnecessarily restricting future options. Changing a major aircraft opening after construction can involve changes to the surrounding structure as well as the door itself.
It’s worth having that conversation while there are still options on the table.
Get the Opening Right During Concept
You don’t need to come to us knowing what size aircraft hangar door you need.
Tell us what you’re flying and we can start with the aircraft dimensions, then work through how it moves, the clear opening it needs, the approach to the building, your site and whether your aircraft requirements may change in the future.
That gives us the information we need during the Concept stage of our 3C Advantage.
From there, we can Configure the TechSpan building around the required opening and coordinate the specialist door system before moving through to Construct.
Start with your aircraft. We’ll help work out what the building needs.