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The central truss- arches are brace-connected to each other by diagonals and posts with the two bottom-chords connected by straight members to form a Vierendeel- system with structural height of 8 m and a span of over 225 m.Īlthough the hangar was originally designed to create the greatest possible free floor area and volume, today the floor area and volume have been repurposed for other uses. On each side the elevationally quarter-segment circular doors in a semi-circlular plan had two fixed and six moving parts to allow clearance for two airships.

The structural concept distinguished the building into two parts: A cylindrical central shape with five steel arches at 35 m centres with bays between covered with a textile fabric. It also represented a new type of hybrid hangar with steel clad fan doors at either end and a central dome area clad in stretched fabric (now replaced on one side with transparent ETFE cushion cladding). Photographs from the 15 year anniversary exhibition boards at Tropical Islands taken by the author during a visit.ĭesign specifications for the original hangar were an impressive 360 metres long, 210 metres wide and 107 metres high, with a volume 5.5 million m³ and remains one of the largest buildings in the world by volume, and the largest as a single hall without supporting pillars. Through continuous development with new pools, facilities and improved transport today the park attracts around 400,000 overnight guests and 700,000 day visitors a year. In 2005, the southern cladding of the central arch was replaced with transparent insulated UV ETFE cushions, but it is said that it was not until 2008 that the park turned a profit. Planning permissions and buildings permits were approved in early 2004 and Tropical Islands theme park officially opened at the end of the same year. The German Finance Ministry stated at the time that CargoLifter failed 'to correct the mistakes made by the earlier leadership and to win over potential users of the technology for further engagement with CargoLifter'.Īfter one year the site and buildings were purchased by a Malaysian corporation called Tanjong for €17.5 million, which included a €10 million subsidy from the state of Brandenburg. After costs of some €78 million the Hangar was ready and open for use by the end of 2000, yet by mid 2002 the company Cargolifter AG laid off 200 of its 450 workers and soon filled for bankruptcy after the government refused a request for credit or loan guarantees worth 40 million euros. In 1997 the firm SIAT GmbH was commissioned to build the Aerium which was to be the birth place and home to these new breed of airships, 60 years after the infamous Hindenburg disaster had all but stopped the, at the time, booming airship industry.

Their goal was to promote and develop airships for the transportation of heavy and outsized goods, the first being CargoLifter CL-160, a carbon fibre helium filled 260 metre long airship able to carry 160t up to 10’000 km at a speed of 80-120 km/h. This German company was founded by a group of engineers and scientists in 1996, driven by an awareness of the global market and ecological need for new forms of transportation. After reunification of Germany the site was returned to the federal Government and later bought by the company Cargolifter AG. After WWII the Red Army occupied and then expanded the sites facilities. The Hangar is located to the South of Berlin on what was originally the Brand-Briesen Airfield built for the Luftwaffe. The Aerium hangar is also known as the CargoLifter AG hangar and more recently as Tropical Islands, the theme park it now houses.

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